Devil May Care
by MagicByMerlin
Summary: A fishing trip ends in disaster for Arthur and Merlin and the boys find themselves in an ancient under sea temple in which Arthur finds a mysterious cube. Little does he know of what the future holds... angst/hurt/comfort/friendship
1. Chapter One

**After a spontaneous fishing trip ends in disaster for Arthur and Merlin, the boys find themselves in an ancient under sea temple in which Arthur finds a mysterious cube. Little does he know that this cube will be the first small stones that start an avalanche of the biggest adventure of both his and Merlin's life time. A tale of friendship, adventure and mystery. Angst/Hurt/Comfort/Friendship.**

**I solemly swear to post one chapter either once a day or every 5 reviews - it depends on my mood.**

**Please, review. PLEASE! I want at least 50! Okay, I'm actually begging you to review now! C'mon, I'm on my knees here!**

* * *

"We are going fishing!" Arthur declared as he swaggered into his chambers, where Merlin was wobbling precariously upon the summit of a stack of chairs.

"We are?" Merlin said over his shoulder, clutching desperately to the curtain rail that the chairs piled were by.

"Yup. Umm…what are you doing up there?" Arthur asked and went to stand at the foot of the mountainous tower of furniture, looking up in puzzlement at the odd sight.

"Fixing the curtains," Merlin replied and wobbled again, "like you told me to."

"And you didn't think to bring them down instead of constructing a death trap?"

Merlin looked from the curtains to Arthur and back again, a sheepish grin plastered on his face.

The mound of chairs quivering dangerously and suddenly, with a snapping crash, the tower collapsed, sending a surprised Merlin flying to the floor and narrowly missing Arthur who only just managed to step out of the way in time.

"Ow." He groaned from a pile of tangled limbs, elbow and knees.

Arthur sighed and made his way over to the wardrobe, which he proceeded to open and fling an assortment of clothes out onto the floor over his shoulder.

"Pack all that," Arthur ordered, pointing to the pile of stuff, "and then go pack your own things."

"Where did this come from all of a sudden?" Merlin inquired, going over to the heap of clothes and sorting them into organized piles.

"I just thought a fishing trip wouldn't be a bad idea."

"You don't have the patience for fishing!" Merlin teased.

"Don't be an idiot."

"Don't be a prat."

Arthur threw the smirking Merlin his best scowl that he saved exclusively for his manservant.

"Anyway, there's a heap of fishing rods and tackle waiting for you outside and a cart by the gate. Go put it all in there and pay the stable boy." Arthur said, digging a few coins out of his pocket and tossing them to Merlin.

"You mean we're going today?" Merlin asked, puzzled, as he crammed the clothes into a rucksack.

"No time like the present as they say." Arthur called over his shoulder as he strolled out the door.

Once Merlin had packed the rucksack he slung it over his shoulder and made his way to Gaius's workshop where he dumped it by the door and went in.

Gaius was fumbling around with an assortment of jars and bottles that held a formidable looking luminous green liquid that hissed and bubbled every so often. He barely noticed Merlin walk into his room; too absorbed in the potion he had concocted to see his nephew.

Merlin harvested the floor of his room for the clothes that were strew everywhere and somehow managed to find enough to fill his own rucksack.

"I'm going fishing with Arthur. I'll see you in a few days." He said to Gaius as he heaved the rucksack onto his shoulder and made for the door.

"Huh? Oh, yes. Bye." Gaius mumbled distractedly as he tipped a red powder into the brewing potion and it flared up with a cloud of purple smoke.

Merlin grabbed the other rucksack by the door and, hunched over from the weight, he staggered down the hall to where the heap of rods and tackle waited for him. Once that was also in his arms (the ropes trailing along the floor and tripping him up) he made his way at a snails pace through the corridors towards the gate.

When Gwen found him she mistook him for a pile of fishing gear, which wasn't far from the truth.

"Where are you going, Merlin?" She asked brightly as he poked his head out from in between a box of maggots and a rod, seeing her.

"Fishing trip." Merlin explained, grinning and shifting the heavy load from one shoulder to the other.

"Oh, really? Bring me back a fish wont you? Umm…I mean bring back a fish. You don't have to bring _me_ a fish. Why would you bring _me_ a fish? I wasn't saying that you had to bring _me_ a fish!" Gwen mumbled and began to blush.

"I'll bring you back a fish." Merlin promised, oblivious as always to her flushed appearance and mindless ranting.

"Thanks." Gwen mumbled, blushing even harder and scuttling away down the corridor, Merlin watching her go with affectionate amusement.

When he got outside to where Arthur had told him a cart would be, there was sure enough a roofed cart and horse waiting for him. He dumped his load in the back and flipped a few coins to the stable boy who ran off, grinning gleefully.

He waited in the cart and after a while Arthur appeared with a big, round man who was quite clearly a fisherman. Arthur looked approvingly at the heap of fishing rods and tackle. It seemed that Merlin had done something right for once.

"Hello there! You must be Merlin." The big man came up to Merlin and began to enthusiastically pump his arm up and down with an iron fist, "Brun's the name and fishing's the game." He said in a Welsh accent, grinning toothily, finally releasing Merlin's hand.

Merlin nursed his throbbing hand in the other and smiled thinly, staring with fascination at Brun's odd appearance that consisted of a bushy white beard, weathered face and tiny spectacles that were perched on the end of his long nose, teetering precariously on the edge.

"I'd like to get there before dark, Brun. I don't want to be late." Arthur said, looking at the sun that would soon be setting.

"You know this all reminds me of this one time when my sister, rest her soul, was so late she missed the party completely and after a talk with old Tom, old Tom's a friend of mine, she found that she had lost her leg. Interesting story really about how I met old Tom. It all started out in the year 1254." Brun said, spreading his arms into the air and getting blank faces from his two man audience, "Me and me old mate Lenny were out in one of our boats, just minding our own business, when suddenly out of nowhere this jellyfish appeared. Stung poor Lenny to a pulp and I didn't come off much better myself, but there you go. But that's all beside the point really so back to my sister. She was talking to old Tom and found she's lost her leg when-"

"Brun," Arthur said before he could go on, "We really need to get going."

The man swiped his floppy hat off his balding head and held it to his heart before shoving it back on and scurrying around the cart to the reins.

Arthur sighed and went round to the other side of the cart to find a seat. Merlin clambered into the back of the cart and nestled himself between a box of worms and a rod, poking his head out between Arthur and Brun through the canvas that covered the front of the cart.

"So where are we going exactly?" He asked as Brun shook the reins and the two horses began to trot along.

"Nowhere special. Just Brinkwell where we'll stay for the night." Brun replied.

"Brinwell's by the sea right?"

"Yeah, if you want to catch some proper fish you go to the sea." Explained Brun, "I've got my boat docked at the harbour there."

"How long till we arrive?" Arthur asked, putting his hands behind his head to protect it from the jolts and jostling of the cart as it rattled out of the castle roads and down a rough track.

"Don't know. Maybe nightfall." Brun replied, slapping the horse's backs with the reins and clicking his tounge at them.

"Right." Arthur said and put his feet up on the rail board at the front of the cart.

"You know, I went to Brinkwell with me old mother once. She really wanted to see the Red Lion inn. That's where we'll be staying actually. Nice place. Good beer. Got some pretty rum old duck though. Don't get the duck. Me old mother ate and it turned out to have this garlic and beetroot paste inside. Horrid stuff I can tell you that. It almost looked like that jellyfish I was telling yer about earlier. Awful thing that jellyfish. Never did like the things and even less after that. Poor old Lenny was in care for months! And then of course the boat needed replacing. He jumped up and down rather a lot you see, scuttled the whole ship! And then there was this jelly swarm right below us. I don't know how we got out alive but anyways, old Tom came along with his rum old net and caught us up in it like a pair of lobsters. Saved us from the jellies but it was a little too late for Lenny by then. We had to nurse him back to sanity with nothing but a box of snails and a meat cleaver!" Brun rambled.

Merlin and Arthur exchanged rueful glances. Was this guy going to jabber the entire way to Brinkwell?

Unfortunately he did. He told them of all his old sea dog adventures that were not in any way interesting to ether of them and by the time they got to the Red Lion inn it was nightfall and Merlin had almost been driven insane from the stories the old fisherman clearly loved to share. He was more than ready to beat Arthur up for hiring the man's boat and service…

Once they arrived at Brinkwell and found the Red Lion inn Merlin was yet again loaded with the huge amount of baggage and received no help from ether Arthur or Brun who were hungry and after careful consideration of the menu (missing out the duck at strict orders from Brun) they got themselves dinner and then paid for a few rooms.


	2. Chapter Two

"Well here it is! The Tempest." Brun said proudly, throwing his arms out at a small boat with a single white sail that was tied up on one of the posts that lined the pier, it's name scrawled on the side in flaky lettering.

"Is that it?" Merlin asked, earning an elbow in the ribs from Arthur and a mortally offended glare from Brun.

"I'll have you know that this vessel has been to Singapore and back!" Brun said in a matter of fact way.

"Really?" Arthur asked.

"Well…umm…no but it's a good little ship!" Brun leapt into the boat, the murky water that sloshed around inside it splashing at his legs.

Merlin shifted the heap of rods, tackle and other fishing gear onto his back for the hundredth time and cautiously jumped into the boat. The vessel rocking violently and knocked him to his feet.

He spat out a mouthful of filthy salt water as Arthur also jumped in, swinging on a rope that hung from the mast and chuckling at his servant's clumsiness.

* * *

When they set off the weather had not been bad in any way. It was sunny and with a light breeze for a few hours but after the shore had been swallowed up by distance the sea began to get moderately choppy and a salty spray of water would occasionally spit onto deck and hit Merlin in the eye, such was his luck.

Brun continued to ramble to them about his encounter with a pirate lord for several hours and Merlin fell asleep more than once, only to be woken by a rumble of thunder or flash of lighting. It was, however, yet to rain and Merlin, ever the optimist, didn't let the other faults in the weather bother him.

Arthur, it seemed, _did_ have the patience for fishing and so every time Brun appeared to be beginning a new story he would busy himself with a rod, tackle and a maggot at the far end of the ship.

"Oh, yes! There I was, swashbuckling for my life against the most fearsome pirate lord that ever sailed the high seas, Long John Copper, and winning, might I just say? Swish, swish, swish!" Brun said, holding an invisible cutlass and swiping at thin air, "He was on his knees and begging for mercy after I had finished with him! Nope, I told him, you tried to take me loot! I, Brun the fishing king, shall never let ye get away with such abominable crimes! And with that, Copper jumped off the ship and swam for his life. I'm pretty sure he became food for the fishes. He's probably in Davy Jones's locker as we speak, plotting his revenge. I'll be ready. You mark my words! I'll get him if he tries anything!" Brun blathered, re-enacting the incident with added sound affects.

Merlin and Arthur who were sitting at the stern of the boat (as far away from the odd fisherman as possible) exchanged glances. Arthur was defiantly regretting hiring 'the fishing king'.

"Hey, Merlin." He said, nudging Merlin with an elbow as his manservant flicked his rod into the water again.

"What?"

"Why did the whale cross the road?"

"Eh?" Merlin said, puzzled.

"To get to the other tide!" Arthur guffawed, obviously finding his pun funny.

"That was dreadful." Merlin groaned.

"Thank you. Knock, knock."

"Do I have to?"

"Yup!" Arthur said with a mischievous grin.

"Who's there?" Merlin sighed.

"Wayne."

"Wayne who?" Merlin said, rolling his eyes and knowing he would regret this.

"Wayne, Wayne, go away and come again another day!" Arthur said and threw back his head; laughing and kicking the water his bare feet were dangling in, showering Merlin in salty water.

"ACHOO!" Merlin suddenly sneezed.

"Huh?"

"Sorry, I'm allergic to bad jokes."

"You're gonna pay for that!" Arthur said with an accompanying chuckle and easily wrestled Merlin off the boat with a splash.

"Urm…he can swim right?" Brun said over Arthur's shoulder.

"…Yes?" Arthur replied unsurely, peering over the side of the ship at the spot where Merlin had disappeared under the water and hoping his answer was correct.

No Merlin appeared.

"You sure about that?"

Shadowy shapes flickered and danced in the blue, grey depths, ones far larger than Merlin, as they peered down at the water.

"What is that?" Arthur said half to himself, staring at the shadowy shape.

Suddenly thousands of bubbles erupted from the water and the boat began to rock violently, throwing Arthur and Brun from side to side.

A huge beast, pale blue, thin and with ragged wings on its elongated neck rose up like a ghost from the water. It had no apparent eyes but instead its head was long and with a hooked beak in which there was a very disturbing sight.

Merlin was upside down in the creature's jaws, his leg clamped between its scissors like beak.

The beast rose to its full height, or so Arthur imagined, shedding hundreds of water droplets that drummed onto the deck and on the two men who were petrified with shock.

"It's a Leviathan!" Brun muffled from behind his beard and stumbled back, tripping over a bucket and falling to the floor.

Merlin struggled fiercely, pulling himself up to try and free his leg.

"No! Stay still!" Arthur yelled; regaining use of his wits and putting his hands up to the gigantic sea serpent in what he hoped was a calming manner.

Merlin obeyed and hung limply in the snake's beak, grimacing with pain as the creature tightened its grip.

"Umm…there's a good sea monster…" Arthur tried, sounding completely stupid and looking it.

Suddenly another blaze of lightening tore across the sky. The Leviathan started and thrashed at the air with it's tattered wings, the force being so powerful it knocked Arthur off his feet. The creature it rose even higher into the sky, Merlin wriggling frantically in its jaws. It dove in an arc right over the ship and into the water on the other side, taking several seconds for it's pointed tail to follow it's long body.

"AA-" Merlin cried and was cut off as he and the beast plunged into the waves.

"Merlin!" Arthur yelled, leaping to the other side of the ship as Brun clambered to his feet.

They stared over the side as the Leviathan's tail disappeared. Arthur's eyes roved over the sea for any sign of the creature or Merlin.

"Where is it?" Brun said, swallowing and leaning over the side.

The beast still did not appear.

Arthur chewed his lip.

He suddenly threw off his coat and jumped to the side of the boat, getting ready to dive, having a hallucination that maybe he could save Merlin.

"I think it's too late, laddie." Brun said quietly, grabbing his arm before Arthur could jump.

"What?" Arthur snapped in a harsh voice and yanked his arm free.

Suddenly, with an almighty crash, the ship was flying up, hundreds of feet into the air and the sheer quickness throwing both Arthur and Brun to the floor. And then, as abruptly as the ship had gone up, it began to fall, plummeting to the vicious sea waves below at a hundred miles an hour. It hit the water at breakneck speed and snapped right in half.

Arthur scrambled to his feet, clutching desperately onto the mast that was getting further and further away as the two halves of the ship floated apart. He had to let go and he fell back onto his half of the boat. Brun was nowhere to be seen and Merlin was gone.

Arthur was alone.

Suddenly the sea serpent flew up from beneath the waves again, towering high above Arthur. He barely had time to blink before it came crashing down on him and the remainder of the ship. The next thing he knew he was under the water and completely blind in the murky darkness and gloom of the ocean. He tried to swim up to the surface but direction was meaningless. A swishing bubbly noise could be heard and he spun around in the water, only to see a huge gaping chasm that was the leviathans jaws, open wide in an unwelcome embrace.


	3. Chapter Three

Merlin had one of those horrible niggling suspicions. The sort that would never go away however much you tried to make it. In this case his suspicions were that he, along with part of the crushed ship and Arthur, were in the leviathans mouth. The fact that there were razor sharp teeth lining the sides of the place was a big give away, as was the huge pink, wet and sticky tounge like organ pulsating on the floor, or was in fact the floor.

After the monster had dived it had snapped Merlin up into its mouth, closely followed by a half drowned and unconscious Arthur and part of the broken ship. Brun was gone.

Merlin had tried to make Arthur comfortable until he woke up with a soaking wet blanket that did more bad than good so he had instead dragged the prince onto the boat, to keep him away from the knee height goo that covered the creature's tounge. Merlin himself had got covered with the transparent slime and flicked yet another dried lump off his knee as he sat huddled in an alcove on the boat, trying his best to ignore the stench that hung thickly in the air.

For the inside of a sea monsters mouth it was surprisingly quiet with only the occasional judder as the leviathan leapt over a wave or swerved around an island.

Merlin wondered why it had not eaten them. Maybe it was saving them for later… However, it wasn't eating them now and he wasn't going to argue.

Suddenly Arthur stirred by his feet and his eyelids flickered.

"You alright?" Merlin asked, crawling out of the alcove and kneeling beside his friend who sat up on his elbows and rubbed an eye dazedly.

"Your alive!" Arthur snapped to attention.

"So are you." Merlin reminded him.

"What is this place?" Arthur asked, sitting up and staring the pulsating pink floor and long white fangs.

"Well…I'm not completely sure but I think it's the monster mouth."

Arthur pulled a face.

"Brilliant. That makes me feel loads better." He groused.

The creature juddered again, the splintered half of the ship vibrating violently and throwing them into the blanket of mucus that spanned the beast's tounge.

Arthur groaned and extracted his arm from the slime, flicking it and sending a hail of goo flying through the air.

"What was that?" Merlin exclaimed, yanking himself free of the muck and climbing to his feet.

The serpent quaked again and suddenly there was a huge and forceful gust of wind flying in from were the opening of its mouth was. Slowly it opened, long cracks of light racing in from between the creatures teeth and casting tall shadows across Arthur and Merlin who clambered to their feet, arms thrown up to protect their eyes from the blast of the wind that buffeted them ferociously.

A new wind suddenly blew behind them from the back of the leviathan's throat.

Merlin felt as though the two forces were compressing him, squashing him into something paper thin and lifeless.

The gale behind was getting more and more powerful and the one in front weaker by the second. The result was that Merlin was suddenly blown off his feet and was flying through the air out of the creature's mouth and hitting a hard stone floor painfully, Arthur following closely.

The Leviathan, which was in a watery opening in the floor, sunk back down below to the dark sea and was gone.

Merlin scrambled onto his front and looked up at the strange place it had spat them out into.

It appeared to be some kind of ancient Greek temple, with crumbled stone pillars and time eroded statues of rearing horses and their riders, long spears in their hands and strange helmets on their heads. The light that lit the room didn't seem to be coming from anywhere but everywhere, casting distorted swirls and patterns onto the ceiling from the reflection of the water that was all over the floor in puddles and where the Leviathan had left. Everything was made from stone of a golden brown colour and was worn away in places from the constant drips of water that cascaded down from the roof. The roof itself was similar to the floor, slabs knocked out of place and overlapping each other in an uneven collage of rock.

What was most disturbing about the strange temple, however, was the hundreds and thousands of skeletons that were lying everywhere, including right next to Merlin.

He rolled away, throwing its dusty fingers off his back and leaping to his feet, pulling a face of disgust and contempt.

"What happened here?" Arthur muttered, climbing to his feet and gazing around with wide eyes.

"More to the point, where is here?" Merlin replied, staring up at the vast ceiling.

"I've seen this place before." Arthur mumbled, as he went to stand before one of the statues, his nose only millimetres away from the rock.

"What? When?" Exclaimed a flabbergasted Merlin.

"I did get an education you know. I saw this place years ago in a book about ancient temples."

"What's it called?"

"Can't remember…" Arthur said, screwing up his face in an effort to call the memory to mind.

"Oh."

"Thing is, this place isn't supposed to exists."

"Well quite clearly it does." Merlin said, brushing the skeleton's hand off his foot were it seemed to have crept by itself.

"No, no. It was like an Atlantis sort of thing. The sea swallowed it up centuries ago. Technically it doesn't exist."

"You mean to say that if this is the right temple, we're under water." Merlin said cautiously, cutting through the deadly silence that had suddenly grown.

"Yeah."

"But I'm breathing air."

"Nicely observed, _Merlin_. There must be something stopping the water coming in." Arthur said, casting his gaze around as if the answer was hiding behind a pillar of statue.

"The Leviathan?"

"Maybe. Where'd it go anyway?"

"How should I know?" Merlin said with an indignant grin, " But why did it bring us here?"

"Perhaps this is its larder." Arthur said in a sarcastically spooky voice and wiggled his fingers mockingly.

"Ha, ha. My sides are splitting." Merlin retorted with equal sarcasm.

Arthur smirked and turned away, beginning to walk down the room, his feet splashing in the shallow puddles.

Suddenly he heard something and stopped dead.

It was hundreds of ghostly voices all whispering around his ears as though the owners were flying in circles around him.

"Arthur." They whispered to him.

"Can you hear that?" Arthur said, whipping around and trying to find the source of the noise.

"Hear what?" Merlin asked, edging away from the skeleton that he was quite sure had moved.

"Someone saying my name."

"I don't hear anything."

"There it is again!" Arthur cried and clapped his hands over his ears to try and block out the spectral voices but they continued to breath into his ear.

"Arthur."

"Arthur."

"Arthur."

"Arthur."

"ARTHUR!" A louder and more human voice hissed into his ear from his left.

Arthur snapped his head around to were it had sounded.

"We…I…I g-gotta go that way." Arthur muttered and drunkenly began to follow the voices, stumbling along and getting faster and faster with each step.

"Whoa, hang on! Where are you going?" Merlin cried, jogging after him and having to speed up considerably as the prince broke into a run, doggedly continuing down the hall, weaving in and out between the pillars and heading to the far end of the room that was a good hundred meters away.

"Arthur." The voices kept saying, having no trouble in keeping up with him as he pelted over the uneven floor.

As they neared the other end of the hall a blurred shape became clear. It was statue (much smaller than the bigger ones of horses) of a beautiful woman in a silk robe holding out her hands to the sky.

Arthur stopped running as he came to it. Merlin, who was pelting after him, skidded on the wet floor and collided into the wall beside the statue, ending up tangled with a skeleton that was slumped against the bricks.

"What are you doing?" Merlin asked crossly as he pulled himself away from the skeleton's clutches and glared at Arthur who was staring unseeingly at the statue.

"What's she holding?" Arthur murmured.

Merlin frowned and followed the prince's gaze to the statues hands.

There was a small cube, about the size of a fist, sitting on her palms, made of a chocolate brown wood and with a silver pattern snaking up its sides that reminded Merlin of tree branches in the winter when they had no leaves.

"What is that?" Merlin said.

"It's mine." Arthur replied.


	4. Chapter Four

"Look, I don't think you should take it." Merlin told Arthur worriedly, glancing around in case there was someone about, as the prince went on tiptoes and tried to grab the cube.

Arthur didn't reply and, not being quite tall enough to reach the very top of the statues heaven raised hands, climbed onto its shoulders.

"You do realize you're stealing?" Merlin said crossly as Arthur seized the box between both hands and pulled at it furiously.

"I prefer the term 'commandeer'." Arthur replied and yanked angrily at the cube that was apparently fixated hard onto the statues hands. Merlin sighed sullenly and folded his arms. Arthur ignored him and, finding that the box wasn't going to come off with a simple pull, stood up precariously on the statue's shoulders and kicked the cube hard with a well-aimed heel.

After another two kicks later, the box flew off the statue and hurtled away straight at Merlin who somehow managed to catch it.

"What is this thing?" He said, throwing it up into he air and catching it again. It just looked like a block of wood to him.

Arthur snatched it out of the air before it fell into Merlin's hands. As soon as his hand closed around it he felt thin bolts of electricity creeping slowly up his arm. It sat in his palm perfectly as though it were made for him. It just felt right to be there. It felt good to be there. He stared at it for a moment, running his fingers over the silver lines.

"Umm…Arthur…you're drooling…" Merlin said hesitantly.

"Huh? What?" Arthur looked up into the face of a rather confused Merlin.

Merlin pointed slowly to Arthur's mouth where there was a long strand of spit hanging.

"Oh…" Arthur muttered embarrassedly and wiped it away with a sleeve.

He looked back at the box in his hand. Suddenly he realized that the voices had stopped. He wondered if they had come from the cube itself.

Merlin continued to watch him warily. He didn't like the box. He could feel that there was something wrong about it. He couldn't let Arthur take it from the temple, let alone keep it forever, which seemed to be Arthur's intentions.

"I think you should put it back." He told him cautiously and reached for the cube

"No way." Arthur said, shrinking away from Merlin's hand and staring intently at the box, turning it over and over in his palm.

Suddenly there was an ear splitting roar.

Merlin whipped around, while Arthur didn't seem to even notice. Merlin squinted his eyes, looking back at the direction they had come from, towards the opening that led to water. The Leviathan was back, it's long, scaly body rising at a rapid pace out of the water and gazing around with its non-existent eyes for its prey. As caught sight of them, its head snapped up pointedly towards the two young men. It pulled itself like a snake from the water and began to slide menacingly at them across the floor.

"Arthur, come on, put it back. We gotta go." Merlin said quickly, grabbing the cube and making for the statue.

Arthur was about to snatch it back but suddenly he had an idea. Merlin wasn't going to let him take it so he would have to trick him somehow…

"Okay, let me put it back." He said.

Merlin looked doubtful but he couldn't risk having an argument now when the Leviathan was drawing ever closer. Reluctantly he placed the cube in Arthur's outstretched hand.

Arthur put the cube on the statue's hands and turned expectantly to Merlin.

"There, happy now?" He said with what he hoped was a convincingly innocent smile.

Merlin looked decidedly suspicious and was about to say something but the Leviathan roared again and cut him off. It was a good deal closer now, even if its progress across the floor was slow.

"Run!" Merlin cried and began to race away from the statue, going left to where he did not know.

As soon as Merlin's back was turned Arthur seized the cube and shoved it into one of his coat pockets, feeling it strangely warm against his chest.

He pelted after Merlin just as the Leviathan snaked up to the statue and lunged at him, missing the prince but crushing the sculpture into a thousand pieces of stone and dust.

Arthur dashed after Merlin and soon caught him up. He had no idea where they were going but the further away from the sea serpent the better.

He dodged around a column and dived over a particularly uneven slab of stone, landing head first in a deep puddle and dragging himself from it as the monster poked it's ugly head around a pillar and screeched yet again.

Arthur suddenly had idea as he noticed the pillar was split in half and only staying intact by precious few centimetres of stone. It wouldn't take much to push it over.

"Merlin!" Arthur shouted to his friend who was cowering behind a horse statue.

Merlin looked up from the beast, saw Arthur and made a break for it, pelting to the slab. The serpent curled itself more around the pillar and snarled as it saw the sudden movement.

"We can use that pillar to kill it!" Arthur yelled to him above the racket, peering over the top of the slab and pointing at the pillar in question. Merlin nodded with wide eyes and they crept to the side of the stone, crouching down so that maybe the creature wouldn't see them, "Now!" Arthur shouted as the serpent wrapped yet another loop of its thin body around the column.

They broke their cover and ran to the pillar.

The Leviathan, who was almost completely coiled around the stone, immediately began to unwrap itself, sensing what they were about to attempt. Arthur rammed his shoulders hard into the column, puffing with the effort, as Merlin threw his back against the rock and pushed for all he was worth. Another light blue coil unravelled from the pillar. Soon it would be free and their chance to kill it would be over. Arthur set his face into a determined grimace and thrust himself against the pillar ever harder.

Suddenly there was a grating sound that echoed around the suddenly quiet hall. The column groaned (if stone could groan) and collapsed, falling heavily onto the Leviathan, which screeched in shock, as it was crushed to the floor.

It flapped about like a fish for a moment, denting the rock all around it, before the weight of the pillar quashed the life from its being.

"Is it dead?" Merlin said, craning his neck out at the still body but making no attempts to find out.

"Would you be dead if a rock pillar fell on you? Of course its dead!" Arthur replied sarcastically and climbed onto the Leviathan's scale covered back, grinning victoriously. Merlin looked thoughtful for a moment and suddenly made his way over to the creature's head, "What are you doing?" Arthur asked in confusion, as Merlin seemed to start sizing up the ugly head.

"I promised Gwen I'd bring her back a fish."

Arthur burst into laughter, "And you think that bringing back the severed head of a sea monster is romantic?"

"Well…umm…you've got a point I suppose…" Merlin said, embarrassed and rubbing the back of his neck.

"What would you do without me, Merlin?"

"Present Gwen with a mutilated head?" Merlin supplied hopefully.

Laughter filled the hall for a moment, reverberating off the walls and creating larger and larger sound waves. Maybe this helped the roof, that was weaker now that it was one pillar short, to break, which is what it began to do.

A chunk of the ceiling fell out of its place, crashing ominously to the floor, centimetres from Merlin, who leapt a foot in the air and tripped over one of the Leviathan's ragged wings. Slab after slab followed the first, water gushing down from the ceiling in a torrential waterfall.

Arthur leapt off the snakes back as another rock fell, inches away from where his feet had been a moment before. He dragged a stupefied Merlin from under a shower of water and together they ran as fast as was humanly possible in the opposite direction of the hundreds of falling bricks.

Water continued to gush in from the gaping hole. It wouldn't take long for it to fill the room and especially now the entire ceiling seemed to be falling away.

"Where are we going?" Merlin yelled over the noise of the water.

Arthur thought for a moment, remembering the book he had flitted through all those years ago when his tutor had been trying to teach him arithmetic. Arthur had never like maths so he had instead fallen into one of the many interesting books that lined the shelves of the study. His tutor, ever oblivious and completely absorbed in triangles, had not noticed when he had snuck over to the shelf and taken a random book that had turned out to be on ancient temples. He remembered the particular page of the temple they were now in. There had been a picture of some holy statue or something and a few Greek priests bowing down to it, offering it burnt sacrifices.

Something clicked in Arthur's head. There had been an opening in the ceiling that served as a chimney for the smoke that billowed out from the burnt offering. Chances were it would lead straight out of the temple. But it must be blocked by something or the temple would be filled with water…

It was still worth a try though, right?

The shrine with the statue would be somewhere central; as were most important things, and if that were the case then they were going in completely the opposite direction.

Arthur abruptly stopped.

"This way!" He shouted and turned back the way they had come, dragging Merlin along with him.

They splashed back through the rapidly rising water, past the Leviathan's dead body and the remains of the statue that had once held the cube.

The water was knee height by the time they found a huge archway on the side of the wall that led to the shrine. There was a strange statue at the far end of the room.

Arthur recognized it to be the Greek god Poseidon. More importantly than the statue, however, was the rectangular stone table before it and the opening in the ceiling that was the chimney.

"What are you doing? We've gotta get out of here!" Merlin cried nervously as Arthur leapt onto the table and gazed up at the hole in the ceiling that was a good fifteen feet away.

"We can get out through there." Arthur told him.

There was a huge stone blocking the hole but the pressure of the water against it when it finally rose high enough would push it out of the way and then all they would have to do would be to swim to the surface.

"How?" Merlin asked incredulously, "That rock's never gonna budge!"

"It will. You've got to trust me." Arthur said, locking eyes with Merlin.

Merlin looked back at the door and the water that was coming in faster and faster. It was waist height now and it would be long before it was even more.

"If we die, I'll blame you." He told Arthur as he joined him on the table.

"I hope you can hold your breath." Arthur said as another surge of water gushed in.

"Me to…"

The water had already come up to their knees. Soon it was waist height, then up to their necks. They began to tread water as it continued to rise. It brought them closer and closer to the hole in the roof with every second that past.

When their heads where pressing against the rock in the hole and there was only a few inches of air left Merlin was having serious doubts that they were going to get out of this alive.

"When I say 'now' hold your breath." Arthur ordered; his voice slightly drowned out by the occasionally lapping of water at his face, "And then push the rock as hard as you can."

Merlin nodded and put his hands up to the cold, smooth stone above.

There were only a few centimetres of air left…


	5. Chapter Five

"Now!" Arthur yelled, taking a deep breath.

Merlin gulped the last millimetres of air into his lungs as his head plunged under water. Everything went a murky grey and Arthur disappeared almost completely in the gloom. Merlin could already feel the water pressure pushing both him and the rock up. He tried to do what Arthur had said and pushed the stone as well as he could considering the given circumstances. He tried to stay as calm as possible; knowing that if he were to thrash about and panic his oxygen supply wouldn't last long enough.

The boulder began to slide up the chimney, slowly at first but then with the combined effort of Merlin, Arthur and the water it's pace quickened and it was soon rushing up the shaft way. Merlin kept thinking it was breaking free of the pipe every time it bumped over a jutting out rock on the sides of the chimney but he was only disappointed. His lungs began to burn with the need for air. He couldn't hold his breath for much longer.

Unconsciously he groped around in the darkness and found Arthur's hand, which he clamped into an almost painfully tight grip.

Suddenly, in a split second, the rock was gone, flying out of the hole and falling heavily to the sandy seabed. Light shimmered down from the sky high above as hundreds of bubbles rose up to the surface.

Merlin shot out of the shaft but quickly slowed down. He released Arthur's hand, fiercely swimming as fast as he could to the surface.

His throat began to throb from the lack of air and with each stroke he made, the surface didn't seem to get any closer. He began to feel weaker and weaker as though he was falling asleep, his watery surroundings beginning to fade slowly and his head thrumming with a light feeling, like his body was becoming lead and his head was full of air.

The surface wasn't getting any closer. Merlin blinked and his frantic pulls through the water began to lessen and eventually stopped all together. He felt his strength ebbing away. Drowsily he lost consciousness and began to slowly sink back down to the seabed.

Arthur made the surface, taking the hugest and most needed of breaths. He was surprised to see it was already night, as he gazed up at the twinkling stars and white orb that was the moon.

Running a hand through his hair that was plastered to his forehead, he trod water and spun around in search of Merlin, who had yet to appear but no one emerged from the water.

This was taking too long. Where was he?

Arthur plunged his head under the water and searched through the cloudiness, salt stinging his eyes. He saw a small shadowy figure was floating eerily away.

Merlin.

Without thinking, Arthur took another deep breath and dived down again, legs kicking strongly. He reached Merlin, who was even paler than normal and clammy to the touch. Arthur grabbed his friend's limp arm and pulled him up, swimming with his other arm and trying not to kick Merlin as he dragged him to the surface.

_Please don't be dead_, Arthur silently plead.

As they resurfaced Arthur pulled Merlin up onto his shoulder, where his head lolled limply.

"Wake up, you idiot!" Arthur muttered and slapped him round the face. Merlin's head just fell the other way, "You'd better not need it, Merlin, because I am _so_ not giving you the kiss of life." Arthur told him crossly, forcing a grimacing smile onto his face that only flickered out and died completely.

A few seconds passed like hours and still Merlin did not breath.

Arthur was ready to give up when suddenly Merlin jerked and coughed up a mouthful of water, spluttering and choking. Arthur released the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

"You idiot! You had me worried!" He snapped harshly, fright making him angry.

"I almost drowned." Merlin mumbled, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, don't do it again." Arthur replied.

"You saved me."

"I always do."

"Thanks." Merlin said, fixing him with a grateful blue gaze.

"Yeah, just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Don't, whatever you do, because I know you will, say 'it couldn't get any worse'."

Merlin grinned and fell back onto Arthur shoulder with a laugh but then seemed to spot something in the distance and looked up.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing at something behind the prince.

Arthur turned to see a funny little, orange light some way off in the distance, bobbing up and down on the water. It looked like a lantern of some kind. As it came closer and Arthur squinted his eyes to see what it was, it became clear that it was a boat, quite similar to Brun's in appearance but slightly bigger and without the second hand look about it.

"Hey! Hey! Over here!" They shouted franticly, waving their arms and making as much noise as possible.

There were a few incoherent murmurings from the boat and the sound of scuffling feet.

"Are you friend or foe?" A voice called.

"Nether. We're wet." Arthur answered, "Can we come aboard?"

There were more hushed whisperings and a few shadowy figures moved around on deck.

"Grab the rope." Someone said and there was a splash as a rope was thrown to them.

They latched onto the rope and it dragged them to the boat where friendly hands pulled them into the ship.

The boat _was_ very much like Brun's, buckets and fishing knickknacks scattered all about the floor and the distinct smell of dead fish mixed with unwashed bodies. The lantern at the hull of the ship lit three curious faces; bathing them in a warm orange glow and making everything seem cosy.

"What would you be doing out here, up the creek without a canoe, let alone the paddle?" One of them asked. He was one of those sorts of people that were big, round, and always wearing a warm smile, no matter what the weather.

"Leave 'em be, John. They must be freezing." A woman (also big and round) said and clambered into the back of the boat to fetch a pair of blankets and a beaten up flask.

"There you go, dear." She said, wrapping a blanket round Merlin's shoulders and pushing the flask into his hands, "Wet your whistle with that."

Merlin opened the flask with shaking fingers and took a few small welcome sips of the whiskey he found there. It slipped down his throat, warming his frozen insides. After he had finished he passed the flask to Arthur who promptly tipped his head back and drank the lot.

"Who are you then?" John asked, leaning forward and clasping his hands together as Arthur peeled off his shirt, wrung it out and put it back on.

"I'm…hick…Arthur. This is…hick…Merlin." Arthur said, hiccupping ever so often.

"We were shipwrecked." Merlin added.

"Where 'bouts you from?" The youngest of the three asked. He was small and didn't take after the other two in the big and round department.

"Camelot." Merlin said as Arthur suddenly toppled over backwards off his seat and began to snore loudly from the floor.

"The whisky be a bit strong for ye landlubbers by my reckoning." John said, eyeing the empty flask in Arthur's hand.

"Yeah…" Merlin said, glaring disapprovingly at his friend, "Might I ask who _you_ are?"

"Of course, where are my manners? I'm John," John said, stabbing himself in the chest with a large thumb, "This is Matilda, my wife," (he gestured towards the round and jolly lady), "and this little rascal down here is Kaelan. You can ignore the bird." He said, pointing the same thumb over his shoulder at a scarlet parrot that was perched on top of the mast, the light breeze ruffling it's feathers.

"No! Goldrush mustn't be ignored!" Kaelan protested indignantly, "He might get angry." He said and stroked his bird feathers as it flew onto his shoulder and nibbled his ear.

"Well, we wouldn't want that now, would we? Go on, you little hobgoblin, off to bed with ya!" John said, ruffling his son's sandy hair as Kaelan scuttled away to the other side of the boat. "You'd best get some sleep too. You look exhausted. We'll have you back in Camelot by tomorrow, no worries!" John added to Merlin.

"Thank you." Merlin said thankfully and John ambled away to a second level of the boat and disappeared.

Merlin nestled himself down beside Arthur, throwing a blanket over the both of them. It was only a few seconds before he was asleep.


	6. Chapter Six

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

Merlin was woken by a pair of saucepans clanging overhead, beaten viciously by Matilda.

"_The end of the world_!" Arthur yelled, shooting up and still half asleep.

"No, worse; morning." Matilda replied.

Merlin sat up and rubbed his eyes sleepily. It was indeed morning and there was the golden white light of dawn shinning from the watery horizon.

"I hate mornings." Arthur groaned and fell back onto his sack of grain that served as a pillow.

"I hate mornings. I hate mornings." A squeaky voice said and the parrot, Goldrush as Kaelan had called it, flew down from its perch on the mast and settled on Arthur's knee. The prince groaned again and pulled the blanket over his head.

Suddenly a blur of a sandy haired young boy shot past and jumped onto Arthur, making him double over with surprise.

"Sorry." Kaelan apologized, grabbing his parrot and then went scurrying away with the bird on his shoulder.

"We'll drop you off at Brinkwell. I trust you can find your way home from there." John said, looking into the distance and shielding his eyes with a hand.

"How much further is it?" Merlin asked, walking over to John.

"I should say about an hour or so." John replied.

As they talked Arthur tried to fall asleep again and turned over. He felt something hard poking into his chest. Abruptly he remembered the cube and yanked it from his coat pocket. He could barely believe it was still there.

Its silver pattern glinted in the sun as he turned it over and over in his hand. There was something about it that he couldn't quite work out, something very desirable.

"Arthur." A hundred ethereal voices whispered to him, defiantly emanating from the box.

"What?" He murmured back, totally entranced, "What do you want?"

"Do you want any breakfast, dear?" A kind voice suddenly broke through the whisperings and Arthur looked up to see Matilda gutting a fish with a long knife.

"Huh? Oh, yes, please." Arthur muttered.

Matilda looked satisfied and Arthur turned back to the cube. The voices had stopped, seemingly interrupted.

"Talk to me." Arthur hissed and tapped it with a finger to see if that would make it speak again.

"Talk to me. Talk to me." A squeaky voice yelled into his ear, making him jump.

The parrot flew off as he shooed it away.

"Talk to me?" Merlin asked, sitting down on a bench and pulling on a sodden boot.

"Umm…yeah, I wanted the bird to talk. Parrots always fascinated me…" Arthur mumbled and shoved the cube back into his pocket before Merlin could see it.

Merlin looked unconvinced and slightly suspicious and was about to speak again when Matilda suddenly spoke.

"Breakfast's ready!" She said in a brisk tone of voice and flapped them over to the table in the middle of the boat where five plates of smoked fish were waiting for them.

* * *

About an hour later a thin slither of land could be seen in the distance and a few minutes after that they had docked at the pier, said their farewells and thanks and hired a horse, which had been troublesome as they had no money. But Arthur (after having flirted a little with the girl at the stables) managed to get a couple of horses and in no time they were heading back to Camelot.

As the mass of turrets, flags and battlements appeared over the hill Merlin realized how much he had missed the place, even though it had only been for a few days since they had left.

He made his way into Gaius's workshop, wondering if his uncle had even noticed his absence. After all, he had been gone the time that was expected for the fishing trip, despite being shipwrecked by a Leviathan and spat out into a lost temple.

"How'd you get on?" Gaius asked, beaming at him from behind a stack of scrolls and medical equipment.

"Oh, you know, just the usual. Attacked by a sea monster, not really anything interesting." Merlin said, going into his room where he hoped to find some clothes.

Gaius just stared after him, slightly speechless.

* * *

The rest of that day was spent by both of them explaining to anyone who would listen about their endeavours at sea. Merlin would have told Gaius but his uncle had a good deal of rounds to attend to so he was out for the rest of the day.

* * *

That night Arthur had the strangest of dreams. Well, more like a nightmare.

_He was in a completely white place, nothing at all to see other than white. _

_"You shouldn't have taken it, you know." Someone whispered into his ear and Merlin sidled around him, smirking. _

_"Taken what?" Arthur asked, but no sound issued from his mouth. _

_"You should have taken it!" Morgana said, appearing from nowhere. _

_"He did take it." Another voice, his fathers, chortled in his ear and he felt Uther's hands on his arms, massaging his shoulders. _

_"He took it, he didn't take it, he took it, he didn't take it." Morgana said; plucking petals from a flower and letting them fall to the floor, where they suddenly turned into pink beetles and scuttled away into the whiteness of the dream. _

_"What's going on?" Arthur demanded as Merlin began to snigger. _

_They all looked rather leering and evil as Uther joined Morgana and Merlin in front of him._

_"Open the cube!" Uther commanded._

_"Don't open the cube." Argued Morgana, beginning to circle around him with the others._

_"Open the cube!" Merlin said, picking up one of the beetles and popping it into his mouth. _

_"Open the cube!" Uther said but then suddenly seemed to change his mind, "No, don't open the cube. Open the cube! Don't open the cube!" _

_"What?" Arthur cried, still no sound coming from his mouth, trying to move but just glued to the spot. _

_"You should open the cube!" Morgana and Merlin said simultaneously, going behind Arthur and resting their chins on his shoulders, gripping his arms painfully and squeezing his head with theirs. _

_"You shouldn't have taken the cube, Arthur." Uther said, standing, arms folded in front of Arthur and speaking in Merlin's voice, "You shouldn't have taken it. You know you shouldn't have." He said and then suddenly looked away sharply, "Don't take the cube. Open the cube. Don't open the cube. Take the cube!" He ordered, turning back and now speaking in Morgana's voice, which was extremely odd. _

_"You could be great if you open the cube." Merlin hissed into his ear, gripping his arm even harder and widely spread a hand out into the air before him. _

_"DON'T OPEN THE CUBE!" Morgana suddenly screeched in his other ear and waved a pink beetle in front of his face. _

_"What's going on?" Arthur tried again. _

_Suddenly hundreds of tiny laughing Morgana's and pink beetles were flying down from the whiteness above, using umbrellas to float. _

_"Open the cube! Don't open the cube! Open the cube! Don't open the cube!" Merlin and Uther sang, linking arms and running round in a tight circle, pink beetles dancing with them. _

_"Open the cube or don't open the cube?" Arthur demanded soundlessly as they all linked arms and began to do the Cancan, complete with ruffled dresses. _

_Suddenly he felt himself slipping, down and down and down, being carried by the pink beetles as the three above him began to laugh maliciously, Morgana still chiming the dreaded words._

_"OPEN THE CUBE!"_


	7. Chapter Seven

Arthur jolted awake, springing up and waving a knife at the air, whipping it out from under his pillow. He dropped the dagger and ran a hand through his hair at the sight of his room, not the white expanse. He crawled to the far end of his bed and hugged his knees, rocking slightly and picking at a frayed thread on the edge of one of the blankets. That dream had been very, very, very odd. He didn't think he would ever forget seeing his father in a dress…

His eyes wondered over to his bedside cupboard where the cube sat, exactly were he had left it before falling asleep.

Good, it was still there.

He looked away, trying to forget the box; it was too weird. But, strangely, he couldn't look away. It was like his gaze kept getting dragged back to the box.

He glanced at it again, and then again and again.

He had to hold it.

He snatched the box off the bedside cupboard and held it in front of him, tightly gripping it like it was a rare and fragile vase. He ran a finger along the long arcs and curls of the silver pattern on the wood.

"Open me, Arthur." The voices began to whisper all around again, louder and more eerie than ever.

"How?" Arthur murmured, staring at the cube intently.

"Use the knife, Arthur." The ghostly voices hissed.

Should he open it? Was this a good idea? Arthur didn't care if it was or not. He had to open the cube and what's more, he was going to.

"Devil may care." He muttered to himself and seized the dagger.

He ran the knife tip down each and every side of the cube, weaving in and out of the silver lines. Suddenly it clicked and a small square on each of its six sides slowly slipped out, sticking a centimetre or so from the cube's smooth surface. All six smaller cubes twisted a complete 360 degrees, clicking quietly.

The silence that came next was deafening. Arthur stared at the cube, wondering what it was going to do.

Abruptly the silver lines began to move, slithering along the grooves of the wood, seemingly having melted. Before he knew it they were snaking away from the cube and running onto his fingers that were clutching the cube so hard his knuckles were white.

He dropped the box as the molten metal began to run up the back of his hand. The cube fell off the bed and rolled under it.

The metal disappeared under his sleeve and he pulled it up to see the silver sinking into his wrist. He could feel it going into his veins and running with his blood stream up and up and up. It was making for his head.

Suddenly a jerk like an electric bolt pulsed through him and he fell off the bed, grasping the blankets like that alone would save him from the pain that suddenly wracked his body. He pulled the fur rugs to his neck, folding it over and over in his hands with agony. The silver had reached the inside of his head, he could feel it running into his eyes and burning them like a thousand fires.

Suddenly an image flashed before him. _It was his father's face, white and as cold as stone. He was dead and Arthur was king, with more responsibilities than he could manage. _

The image was gone and Arthur caught a glimpse of the ceiling of his room before another streaked before him.

There was Merlin's grave and he was collapsing onto it, crying out his heart for his lost friend. His best friend. He had died saving Arthur's life.

Arthur snapped back to reality, tears of horror swimming in his bloodshot eyes.

Once again a bolt of searing pain shot through him and his eyes began to blaze with a white-hot sensation of torturing misery.

His last thought was that he was dieing.

* * *

The next morning Merlin managed to wake up in time for work (something he rarely did) as Arthur had mentioned he wanted his floor sweeping along with the rest of the usual duties. Yawning, he got up and threw on some clothes before sleepily making his way down the stairs and picking at his morning gruel then, deciding to leave it as always, (maybe why he was so skinny) he ambled out of the door, stretching leisurely.

The next thing to do was to fetch Arthur's breakfast from the kitchens and present it to the prince himself. Yawning a reply to one of the cooks about how he was that morning, Merlin got the tray and picked his way expertly through the many familiar corridors that led to Arthur's room.

Flattening his mussed up hair and trying to look presentable (failing miserably) he rapped his knuckles on the door, stifling yet another yawn. Wondering why he was knocking when he never did normally Merlin waited for a reply but none came.

"Ah, stuff it." He muttered to himself and went in.

The curtains were still closed and the room was dark so Merlin groped around for the table so he could put down the platter and open them. Once the curtains were drawn he turned to the bed where he expected Arthur to still be. The only thing on the bed though was Arthur's legs. The rest of him appeared to be on the floor.

Thinking Arthur had rather strange sleeping habits Merlin went around to the other side of the bed to find out what he was doing on the floor.

He was laying there, shoulders and head on the ground but legs and back on the bed, which did not look in any way comfortable. His eyes were tightly closed and anyone would have mistaken him to be asleep had his face not been scrunched into a grotesque mask that by rights, should not belong to anyone other than someone who was in a great deal of pain.

Merlin immediately knew that something was very wrong and knelt next to the prince who wasn't moving apart from a rapid, irregular gasp for breath every now and then.

"What happened to you?" Merlin exclaimed, though unsure if the prince could even hear him.

"Merlin?" Arthur cried and shot his hands up to Merlin face, poking him in the eye.

"What are you doing?" Merlin said incredulously and pulling Arthur's hand off him from where they seemed to be feeling his face.

"Is that you?" Arthur asked urgently in a small voice.

Merlin wondered why he didn't just open his eyes and see for himself but answered anyway.

"Yeah, it's me but…umm…what are you doing on the floor?"

"I thought you'd died!" Arthur said, ignoring the question.

Merlin thought maybe he'd had a bad dream and overlooked what he'd said.

"What happened?" He demanded firmly.

Arthur shook his head and gritted his teeth, still apparently in a lot of pain. He clenched his eyes shut even tighter and hissed with agony, squirming on the floor.

Merlin looked on helplessly.

"What's wrong?" He asked again with a softer voice.

It was a moment before Arthur spoke again.

"It hurts…it hurts so much…" He whimpered, turning over and clutching the blanket tightly, stiffening with the pain that he was obviously in.

"I'll go get Gaius." Merlin decided, standing up.

"_NO_! Don't leave me!" Arthur cried, groping around until he found Merlin's foot and latched onto it.

"But your ill!" Merlin said, trying to free himself.

"Please, don't go!" Arthur sobbed into his ankle.

"I have to. I'll only be a minute." Merlin promised. He hated to have to leave him in this state but he didn't have a choice.

He prized Arthur's hands off his foot and quickly dashed out the door, blocking out all beseeches of to not go, and quickly made it back to Gaius's workshop.


	8. Chapter Eight

When he and his uncle returned to Arthur's chambers the prince was still in the same condition as before, if not worse. As Merlin helped Arthur onto the bed and Gaius gathered his wits they both missed the cube under the bed.

"What happened, sire?" Gaius asked, stooping over the prince and checking him over.

There was a pause and Merlin was quite sure that Arthur hadn't heard.

"It hurts…" Arthur whimpered eventually, his fingers curling with pain.

"Can you open your eyes?" Said Gaius.

"I…I…d-don't know." Arthur stammered, not making any attempts to try.

Merlin watched on from the other side of the bed with a sort of frustrated helplessness at his disability to do anything to even at least make Arthur's pain go away. It hurt him to see Arthur in the way he was, unable to open his eyes for some reason and writhing in agony.

"Can you try?" Gaius persisted with a firm voice.

Arthur squirmed and forced a nod. He seemed to be having some kind of inner struggle to open his eyes but slowly and surely the creases around them began to lessen.

Suddenly, as soon as a tiny crack of his eye was open, a burning white light shot out and filled the room, hitting Merlin and Gaius and throwing them to the floor.

Arthur immediately closed his eyes again and wailed softly to himself with misery.

Merlin, knocked flat and almost unconscious, felt like he had been destroyed by the intense brightness of the light alone. He'd felt it physically burning him. He scrambled up into a sitting position, his head spinning.

Gaius took a moment to stir and Merlin would have gone to help him except for the fact he was seeing stars and appeared to have lost the power to move.

"What," Gaius exclaimed, "was that?"

Merlin shook himself as though to rid him of the stars that floated before his eyes and managed to climb to his feet. He glanced at Arthur on the bed. He was in no fit sate to hear what Merlin wanted to say next.

"That was magic." He told Gaius, going over to the old man and helping him up.

"Who's done this to him?" Gaius pondered, a hand on his chin.

"Arthur, what happened before you became like this?" Merlin asked, going to his friend's side and shaking him gently to get his attention.

"It's all my fault. You told me not to but I took it anyway. I'm so sorry! You're right, I am a prat." Arthur said.

"What? What did you take?" Merlin urged.

"The cube." Was the gurgled reply.

Merlin frowned for a moment before he remembered the box they had found in the temple. It really couldn't have meant less to him at the time and he had completely forgotten it after they had left the temple.

So, Arthur had taken it after all, regardless of Merlin's warnings.

He couldn't help but feel slightly peeved despite the pity for Arthur that overwhelmed him. Though really he shouldn't have been surprised. It was not like the prince to give up easily if he wanted something and he had been _drooling _at the sight of the box for crying out loud.

Merlin could have kicked himself. He should have said something. He knew there was something wrong about the cube. It just oozed magic. Perhaps it was his fault just as much as Arthur's that the prince was now in agony.

"Cube? What cube?" Gaius asked, perplexed "Merlin?"

"We found a cube in the temple." Merlin explained thickly.

"Temple? What temple-"

"There's no time for that! Arthur, where's the cube?" Merlin asked, turning back to the prince.

Arthur began to cough and splutter and Merlin was sure he was having some kind of a fit but then he realized that he was in fact trying to speak.

"I…I…d-d" Arthur tried but gave up and simply shook his head, clutching the blanket, rubbing his forehead and then clasping the blanket again, not sure what do with himself – nothing took away the pain.

"It gotta be around here somewhere." Merlin said, looking around.

He and Gaius began to search the bed, floor and room in general for the cube. Merlin was wondering what they were going to do with it if they did find it when he happened to look under the bed and saw it.

Except it looked different.

The silver lines were gone and there were smaller centimetre high squares protruding from all six sides. The only way Merlin could describe it was 'open'.

He grabbed it and held it up triumphantly.

Gaius came over and looked at it with interest, digging a magnifying glass out of his pocket and going to study it on the table.

"Merlin?" Arthur croaked from the bed, waving his arms in the air, trying to find his friend.

Merlin's breath lodged in his throat at the sight of the so normally independent man blindly searching for an anchor that would keep him in the real world. He stopped Arthur's arm from thrashing about and gripped his hand tightly.

"Merlin, what's going on? Why can't I open my eyes?" Arthur asked huskily with a dry throat.

"The cube's done something to you." Merlin told him, feeling a sense of failure crushing his heart. He wished that he could do something but he'd never come across anything like this before. He'd battled Avancs, killed Questing beasts and destroyed witches but a _cube_? How on earth did you reverse the effects of a _cube_?

"I saw my father die. I saw you die." Arthur was telling him and he looked down at him to see the prince's face troubled, wretched even.

Merlin felt rather touched that Arthur seemed so distraught at the thought of him dying and allowed himself a smile.

"Uther's not dead and neither am I." He reassured him.

"I don't think I'm going to last much longer." Arthur said with a suddenly quiet resignation.

"Don't be stupid! You're not going to die!" Merlin snapped at him with harsh fright.

"Merlin," Gaius beckoned to him from the chair were he was inspecting the cube, "come here."

Merlin forced himself to let go of Arthur's hand and went over to the table; hating to leave the prince alone in the blind darkness he was suffering.

"What is it?" Merlin asked as Gaius held the cube up into the light.

"Well, I can't see anything wrong with it. I'm going to have to do further studies." His uncle replied.

"How long is that going to take? _He's in pain_!"

"I know but if we're going to solve this then I'm afraid it's going to take time." Gaius said, glaring at the cube from behind his spectacles.

"What are we going to do in the meantime?" Merlin asked.

"I don't want to tell the king anything until we have at least some idea of what happened." Gaius mused.

"I didn't mean that! I meant, what can _I_ do?" Merlin exasperated.

"If you mean magic then you can do nothing. Don't risk dabbling in things you don't understand."

"What do you mean?"

"This is a different type of magic altogether. Its nothing to do with the Old Religion." Gaius said enigmatically.

"But I can't just leave him like this!" Merlin said, gesturing at Arthur who was still writhing on the bed.

"There's nothing I can do for him, I'm afraid but I do have some elixir that will help him sleep."

"That'll work?" Merlin asked.

"I don't know what we're up against but I'm hoping it will." Gaius said, making for the door and motioning for Merlin to follow him.

Merlin, blocking out the faint sobs from Arthur, reluctantly followed Gaius out the door and down the corridor.


	9. Chapter Nine

Once he had obtained the sleeping draught he quickly made his way back to Arthur's room, leaving Gaius to inspect the cube.

He stood morosely by the door for a moment, staring sadly at the figure in the bed before gathering himself and going over to Arthur.

The prince heard him.

"Who's there?" He asked fearfully, still not able to open his eyes without sending the blazing light into the room.

"It's me." Merlin said, his voice weary, "I brought you a sleeping draught."

He guided Arthur's hand to the phial of liquid and watched in horror as he missed his mouth each time he tried to bring it to his lips. Merlin had never expected to see the prince so completely helpless.

He gently directed the phial to Arthur's mouth, a deaden expression on his face as he found Arthur's hand cold.

"Its horrible." Arthur stated, a glimmer of his old self issuing from his tone of voice.

Merlin was almost lured into thinking he was getting a little better but his hopes were dashed when Arthur grimaced with pain yet again.

"I'm sorry." He said suddenly, confusing Merlin. What was there to be sorry about?

"What for?" Merlin asked.

"For taking the cube. I never listen to you but I should." Arthur said with complete seriousness.

"Yes, you _should_." Merlin tried to laugh but it only came out as a strangled choke.

Arthur also tried to make a joke of it and lighten the mood but his grin turned to a twisted one of pain.

There was a short pause full of silence, only broken by Arthur's rasping breath.

"I could help you, you know." Merlin said.

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked drowsily.

It was slowly killing Merlin to watch his friend in so much pain and he suddenly had an overwhelming desire to go against everything Gaius had taught him, blow all cover and just cure Arthur like he knew he could. It wouldn't take long for him to find the right spell. He could have Arthur cured in no time, or so he thought and wished.

"What I mean is there's something…that…umm…you don't know about me…and umm…well, I can cure you…" Merlin mumbled, tensing up and his stomach winding into knots.

"Eh?"

"I…err…well, that is to say…that…I umm…well, you know how magic is forbidden in Camelot and stuff…well, and I couldn't tell you before and…err… PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" Merlin blurted out. Arthur didn't answer so Merlin continued to jabber, "I'm actually a…a…a…" Merlin could bring himself to say it even if he was dieing to tell, "What I mean is…I'm a warlock." He said, squeezing his eyes tight shut and getting ready for a blast of anger that he belive would come.

There was none.

Merlin dared to open his eye a crack to find Arthur sound asleep.

Oh.

Merlin felt somewhat put out. He had just said what he had wanted to say for months and when he finally had done so Arthur had fallen asleep right in front of him.

How like Arthur…

He sadly continued to say what he felt though. Somehow it was easier to do when he wasn't actually listening.

"I'm a warlock and I've saved your life more times than even I can remember. You understand why I couldn't tell you before? I'm really sorry." He said with a lifeless expression, "I hope you can forgive me. I would never use magic for bad and I'm defiantly not here to destroy Camelot. In fact, it's the complete opposite. There's this dragon under the castle, you see. He told me that we're two sides of a coin and I've got to help you reunite the land of Albion." Merlin told Arthur, who looked peaceful for the first time since the cube had attacked him.

It was rather ironic really that when he finally heard the truth that he was asleep but Merlin couldn't stop and just kept going, sadly telling him of how he'd saved his life behind his back.

"I slowed down time to save you from lady Helen, brought the snakes out of Valiant's shield, helped you kill the Avanc, rescued you from Sofia, made the tornado appear in Ealdor. Yes, that was I not Will. And then, not so long ago, I went to the isle of the Blessed and bargained my life for yours to save you from the Questing beast. I'm not ashamed to say I would die for you, Arthur, and I also don't care if you never hear this because you're asleep, but I just want to know anyway." He rambled; sitting on the end of the bed and resting his head on his knuckles while Arthur gently snored.

"Life isn't fair, is it?" He told the prince, "You being asleep and all while I tell you the most important thing you'll ever hear. Well, I guess there's nothing more for me to say so…umm…goodnight, I guess." He stood up, took one more wistful glance at Arthur and left.

* * *

The following hours passed like years for Merlin while he sat opposite Gaius and stared unseeingly at the cube as the physician examined it with every tool imaginable. At times Merlin would think he had cracked it when his uncle suddenly went 'ooh' or 'ahh' but he was then disappointed as Gaius's expression turned to that of confusion once again.

He would often go and check on Arthur every time his uncle got too annoyed with him for asking whether he had found anything yet. He would sometimes find the prince asleep but other times, randomly, Arthur would jerk suddenly awake, screaming about someone else's death to which Merlin could only tell him no one had died and try to comfort him.

So there he was, Arthur lying is his arms, unconscious. Last time he had woken up, he had asked Merlin not to leave his side, he was scared and terrified about hurting anyone if the opened his eyes again.

A few hours later he jolted awake once more, having had another dream. From what Merlin could discern from the mindless babble it had been him who had died yet again.

He held his friend closer as Arthur sobbed quietly to himself.

"Please don't leave me, Merlin." His friend begged him; "I can't do this without you."  
Merlin looked at him and tried not to cry. It was hard but he could stand it  
for his best friend.

"I'm not going to leave you. I never will." Merlin told him quietly.  
He couldn't believe all this madness. His best friend was defenceless and he  
couldn't help him.

He just stayed there, supporting him in his arms and not for the first time in his life, Merlin thought of Arthur as his brother.

But in that day the young warlock aged more than a hundred years.

* * *

The next morning Gaius had still not got anywhere with the cube. When asked he had said 'it's as baffling as a teenagers mind' and Merlin had asked no further questions on suspicion he was talking about him.

His uncle had been working all night (one of his specialties) and Merlin had found him slumped in a chair when he had emerged from his room with nothing for company save a molten stump of wax that could no longer be called a candle.

He had woken as early as he could so that he was free to spend the day with Arthur as Gaius had advised. Merlin wouldn't have cared if Gaius hadn't said it a good idea and had in fact ordered him not to go under pain of death, he was going no matter what and nothing could stand in his way! Except for perhaps Gwen.

She had appeared around the corner in the way she did far too often and she seemed to have a question for him so he, being the polite well brought up boy he was, stopped to let her ask it.

"I didn't know you were back, Merlin. Did you have a good time? Where's that fish you promised me?" She asked with a little laugh.

"Well…umm…it's a long story, to be honest. But I did kill a fish." Merlin said, quite truthfully referring to the Leviathan.

"Oh, really? How big was it?"

"I'd tell you but you wouldn't believe me."

Gwen laughed; clearly thinking it was a joke.

"Well, I don't know what I would have done with if you had brought it back. Anyway, it was nice to catch up." She said; waving goodbye as she continued on her way down the corridor and Merlin went on his way down his.

As he hurried down the many halls Merlin wondered whether Arthur was awake or not. He also wondered if perhaps the sleep the elixir had brought had blunted the agony he had been in before. Merlin sincerely hoped so but he knew that in the furthest regions of his heart it wasn't to be.

The previous night he had said 'life wasn't fair' and he'd meant it.

He walked into Arthur's chambers without knocking as usual to find the prince in exactly the same place as he had left him before.

As Merlin crawled apprehensively towards the bed at a snails pace Arthur suddenly sat bolt upright.

"_NO_!" He yelled.

Merlin jumped but quickly regained his wits.

"What is it? What's wrong?" He asked, trying to stop Arthur from thrashing around.

"Is Morgana alright?" The prince cried, sweat trickling down his face.

"Yes, yes, she's fine." Merlin reassured him but Arthur didn't calm down.

"Is Merlin alright?" He demanded.

"I am Merlin."

"You are?"

"Yes!"

"Are you alive?"

"Yes!"

Arthur seemed satisfied by this and lay down again.

Merlin couldn't help but notice that his shirt was damp with sweat but his hand was cold as he gripped it tightly, staring with horror at the prince who didn't even seem to be able to think logically enough to realize that if someone was talking to him then of course they were alive.

"Why is it so cold?" Arthur croaked after a lengthy pause in which Merlin tried to pull himself together.

"I don't know." Merlin said, running the tip of his tongue over his suddenly dry lips and pulling another of the fur rugs over the prince to keep him warm.

Arthur stared with closed eyes at the top of his four-poster and shivered.

"Where am I?" He asked in a small voice that reminded Merlin of a lost child.

"In your room. Don't worry, your safe."

"Are you going to leave me?" Arthur asked with barely hidden desperation.

"No. Never." Merlin choked, holding back tears of helplessness as Arthur stared lifelessly at the ceiling again.

There was another long pause and even though he was trying his best not to cry Merlin soon had streaks of tears glistening on his cheeks. He wiped them away furiously.

"I need to get out of here." Arthur suddenly said.

Merlin swallowed before answering, not trusting his voice.

"Why?" He asked.

"The airs crushing me." The prince said, "Take me to the roof."

Merlin understood exactly what he meant.

"C'mon then, lets go. Do you think you can stand?"

"Of course I can stand!" Arthur said with a grimacing 'I'm-trying-to-look-fine-but-quite-clearly-I'm-not' appearance about him as he sat up and swung his feet over the side of the bed, doing his best to ignore the sudden dizziness and nausea he felt pulsing through his head.

He stood; ignoring all flustered help attempts from Merlin, and promptly collapsed on the floor.

"Whoa, are you alright?" Merlin asked anxiously, helping him into a sitting position.

"My head…" Arthur groaned and clutched his throbbing forehead.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea." Merlin said doubtfully.

"You'll have to tie me up in a sack to stop me." Arthur told him crossly, pulling a face as he attempted to get to his feet.

Merlin sighed and rolled his eyes, though glad to hear that sarcastic tone once again, and let Arthur support what seemed like his entire wait on him.

They staggered out of the door and made their way down the corridor, somehow managing to avoid all eyes as they made there way to the roof.

As Merlin hobbled up the stairs to the battlements, Arthur leaning on him like a life support, his breath was yet again taken away at the sight of Camelot laid out before him in all its splendour. It was one of those misty green spring days when you could almost smell the rain of the previous night and every colour seemed sharper.

It was such a shame that Arthur couldn't see it.


	10. Chapter Ten

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* * *

Darkness was Arthur's world as he let Merlin lead him to the battlements. His knees bumped against something solid that must have been the stone wall that stopped people from falling off the battlements. This was one of his haunts where he always came to think things over. He was surprised that Merlin knew this but then again Merlin was practically like an extra limb to him now – someone who went everywhere with him and knew more than a little about his ways.

Arthur ran his fingers over the stone, finding it to be slightly damp and rather cold to the touch but pleasant nevertheless as apposed to Merlin's sweaty hand. Icy sharp air filled his lungs. It was so good to be out of that stifling room and in the open again.

Merlin stood silently by his side.

Arthur remembered that odd conversation they had had the previous night. What was it Merlin had said? Something about curing him? And then what did he say after that? It sounded like something important…

"What did you want to say last night?" Arthur asked promptly, missing how Merlin suddenly stiffened.

"Oh, erm…nothing really…"

"No, go on. Tell me." Arthur persisted.

"No, no, it was nothing…"

"Merlin, you really are the worst of liars." He said, giving him a look that Merlin could only describe as prattish.

"It wasn't important, honest! Err…did you have a good night's sleep?" Merlin said, deciding it was time to steer the conversation out of these dangerous waters.

"No, I didn't." Arthur said tightly, thankfully dropping the subject.

"Why?"

There was a silence full of guarded feelings as Arthur decided whether he should tell Merlin about the dreams he had had before he'd woken that morning.

"Just promise me you'll never give me that sleeping draught again." Was all he said.

"Why?" Merlin asked again, his forehead furrowing.

There was another pause.

"I see these visions." Arthur eventually admitted. Merlin said nothing and waited for him to go on, "I first saw my father die and then I was king but I didn't know what to do and no one could help me…" Arthur said in a far away voice.

"It was only a dream. Its not real." Merlin said comfortingly.

"I know but then there was a grave, your grave, and I was crying and you were dead and…and…" Arthur took a sharp intake of breath and hid his face from Merlin, trying to stop the tears falling at the memory. What would the people say if they heard the prince of Camelot had cried over a _servant_? What would they say if he had cried at all? No, he could not cry. He would loose his untouchable figure of authority that he had strived so hard to maintain so that he might impress his father and show him he was worthy of taking the throne. Emotion was not an option. But having said that, Arthur was not the type of man to obey orders if he thought it wrong. Servants and royalty rarely mixed but Arthur didn't see Merlin as his servant. He saw him as a friend. To be friends with a servant was not illegal – that would be ridiculous – but it _was_ frowned upon. Anything that was held in such light Arthur loved to go against but that was not his reason for thinking of Merlin as his friend. His reasons were that Merlin was loyal (perhaps too much for his own good), he was always a light in dark times and even if he was the most incompetent servant the castle had ever harboured Arthur was still very fond of him and enjoyed having him around. The prince could barely think of Camelot without Merlin.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a crime to cry over the death of a servant. _In fact_, Arthur thought, _it defiantly wouldn't be_.

"And what?" Merlin asked with intense curiosity, breaking Arthur away from his thoughts, "What happened then? What did you see?"

"I don't know." The prince replied, composing himself and turning back to the view that must be before him. He wondered what it was like. It was spring but that wouldn't really help him imagine what the landscape would look like.

Perhaps Merlin could tell him…

"Merlin?"

"Yeah."

"Umm…well, you don't have to or anything, its not an order but…err…can you tell me what you see?" Arthur asked awkwardly.

"What I see?" Merlin repeated slowly.

"Yeah."

"Why?" Merlin asked, his forehead furrowing with puzzlement.

"Because I can't open my eyes but I still want to see the view." Arthur explained difficultly.

"Oh." Merlin said and there was a short pause, "Well, umm…I see Camelot." He eventually came up with.

"Surely you can do better than that!" Arthur laughed.

"Alright, alright! Give me a chance." Merlin said and judging by the sound of shuffling feet he appeared to be shifting about as though that would help him construct the words to build a picture of the scenery. _It was just one of those Merlinish things_, Arthur supposed.

After another pause he seemed to have thought about what he was going to say and began to speak.

"Well, the hills roll away into the distance, gradually getting more and more blurred because there's this drizzly mist hanging over everything. The sky is hundreds of different colour greys and there are some birds up there, I think they're skylarks. Do you hear them?" Merlin asked.

"Yeah, I can hear them." Arthur replied.

"There are oak trees, willows, firs and a few scotch pines out in the distance, right on the tip of the furthest hill. There's this one tree near the beginning of the forest-"

"Which forest?"

"The one something bad always happens in."

"Right."

"Anyway, there's this one tree, I reckon it's a cherry tree. Its got really pink flowers all over it and it looks much clearer than normal because the sun just came out from behind a cloud and is shinning loads of rays down on the ground." Merlin explained.

Arthur could imagine it all. The hills, dark green and sloping away, splattered in different types of trees and this one tree – a cherry – sitting near the beginning of the forest and a long beam of light emanating down from the sky and illuminating it.

"And it market day down- you'd better not be laughing at me." Merlin stopped and cast Arthur a critical look.

"I'm not laughing!" Arthur said indignantly, being completely truthful.

"You're laughing on the inside…" Merlin grumbled.

"No, I'm not. Just get on with it."

"Fine, fine." Merlin said airily, "Like I was saying its market day in the town and there's a cat trotting down one of the streets and it's leapt onto a fruit stall to wash itself. I think it wants to salvage the last of the sun because it's just gone behind a cloud 's a wandering band right by the tavern as well."

"Are they any good?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah, they've got a pretty big crowd."

"Go on."

"Oh, a dog just scared off the cat but it's escaped."

"Good."

"And some of the houses have smoke rising from the chimneys. It stinks actually." Merlin went on.

"Yeah, I can smell it." Arthur said, taking in a lung full of smoky air.

"There are a few cute girls gossiping on the corner, too."

"What? Where?" Arthur demanded.

"Doesn't matter if you can't see them!" Merlin laughed.

"That's downright unfair!" Arthur complained sourly.

"Did I mention they were cute?"

"Stop rubbing it in!"

"Yes, _Sire_."

Arthur muttered something about him being barbarous and sulkily folded his arms.

"Well, that's about it really." Merlin finished after his grumbling had subsided.

"Thank you." Arthur said in more seriousness now.

He really was thankful to Merlin, not so much for the description of the landscape but for just being with him. Arthur couldn't pinpoint it but there was something different with him since the cube had attacked him. Something he could only describe as a desire to not be left alone in the cold darkness that the cube had brought upon him and Arthur, for one, could think of no better person to help him through times such as these than Merlin.

The young prince felt a splash of water on his nose and wiped it away as the heavens opened and rain began to fall from the bloated grey clouds. Soon it was coming down in bucketfuls but neither he nor Merlin made a move to go back indoors. The prince didn't want to go back to his stuffy room were he would only sleep and see more of those dreaded visions.

Merlin, who was soaked to the skin, embarked on a feeble endeavour to keep the rain off him by pulling his coat over his head but only succeeded in making himself more wet and gave up.

The rain continued to lash at the castle walls. Arthur could hear it. He had always liked the sound of rain and it was strangely comforting. It reminded him of his childhood when one day he had been trying to go out to play with a few of his friends in the town but it had been raining and his father, being a rather overprotective man, had forbidden him to go. A zealous Arthur had blatantly ignored him, of course and clambered out of the window and across the roofs via a secret way to the town only he knew. He had paid the price for being out in a downpour all day and half the night, however, and came back, drenched and bedraggled, to the castle where he received little sympathy from his father and nurse maid. He may have caught a hell of a cold but it had been a fun experience none-the-less.

Good times, they were.

Suddenly he was yanked from his thoughts by a horrible jolt of excruciating pain and he stumbled back a few steps, clutching his head in one hand and rubbing frantically at his burning eyes with the other. It was so sudden and heart-stopping that he couldn't breath for a moment and was only mildly aware of Merlin dashing to his side and attempting to stop him from collapsing. The prince's knees buckled and Merlin couldn't keep him up. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Gaius prodded the cube warily with a pair of long metal tweezers yet again in a futile attempt to make it do something. How many hours had he spent examining it now? At least thirty and with no rest to speak of.

Gaius removed his spectacles and placed them on the table before rubbing his tired eyes with two fingers and sighing heavily.

Suddenly there was a scuffling outside the door and it flew open to reveal Merlin, or to be more precise, his back. The young warlock hurried in backwards, dragging Arthur by his arms over the floor. The prince looked all but dead, unmoving and limp. Gaius would easily have mistaken him to be no longer alive save the fragile rising and falling of his chest as Merlin hauled him into the room and quickly shut the door.

"What happened?" Gaius demanded, rising from his chair and dashing to the unconscious prince.

"I-I don't know. He just collapsed." Merlin responded helplessly, leaning over Arthur as Gaius put a finger and thumb on the prince's wrist to check for a pulse, which he found to be irregular and weak.

* * *

Arthur wasn't entirely sure where he was when he woke up. This, of course was because he could not open his eyes for fear of hurting someone again.

Wherever he was, he was lying down in what appeared to be a bed that was about as comfortable as being impaled by a rhino. The blankets were scratchy, the pillow seemed to have lost half of its stuffing and the mattress was like rock – totally different to his own four-poster.

He thought he heard a voice but he couldn't tell whom it belonged to.

"Arthur?" The voice asked him and then, "Gaius, I think he's waking up."

Arthur groaned and attempted to rub his throbbing head but his arms appeared to be boneless and he gave up.

"Can you hear me, Sire?"

Arthur was pretty sure that was Gaius speaking and tried to reply but his throat was dry and his words constricted him.

"I'll fetch him some water." The physician said and there was the sound of footsteps drumming away.

"How are you feeling?" The other voice asked. Arthur recognized it to be Merlin amongst the ringing in his ears.

"Where am I?" Arthur croaked.

"In my bed. Gaius said you needed round the clock attention so, for now at least you're here to stay." Came the reply.

"But where will you sleep?"

"I'll be fine on the floor."

"I'm really sorry about all this."

"Don't be. Its not your fault" Merlin said as the footsteps returned.

Arthur felt someone put their hand under his neck and lift his head up gently as a cup was brought to his lips and the most delicious of water ran down his throat.

"You need to get some rest, Sire." Gaius told him firmly as Merlin set the glass down on the bedside cabinet, "I'll get some sleeping draught."

"No!" Arthur said quickly, remembering the horrible unnatural sleep the draught had brought him before, "No, I'll be fine."

Gaius grunted and pattered away again, muttering something to Merlin about keeping an eye on him.

There were a few noises of furniture being moved around and it seemed that Merlin was constructing a makeshift bed on the floor.

"What time is it?" Arthur asked.

"Almost midnight. You've been out for quite a while." Merlin answered.

"Come here a second, would you, Merlin?" Gaius's voice travelled through from the door.

"Don't leave me!" Arthur cried before he even had time to think.

"Why not?" Merlin said; halting in his tracks to the door, a puzzled expression etched onto his face.

"Its so dark." Arthur said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'll only be a minute, Arthur. I'll come back-" Merlin began.

"Merlin?" Gaius said impatiently.

"A minute, I promise." Merlin said, squeezing his friend's shoulder before making his way down the stairs, "What is it?" He asked Gaius who was a little way off, arms folded and staring at the cube that was at present suspended inside an odd metal contraption with a great deal of hooks, switches and valves.

"Well, that's just it." Gaius said, motioning crossly at the cube, "I haven't a clue what it is or why it attacked Arthur. I've never in all my life seen anything like it. I've looked through all the possible books both in here and the library but still nothing!"

There was a short pause.

"When are we going to tell the king?" Merlin asked, "We can't keep this a secret forever."

"I'm not sure-" Gaius started.

"Merlin?" Arthur all but begged from the other room, desperation drenching his words.

"In a minute." Merlin called back and turned back to Gaius, "But how are we going to reverse it if we don't even know what it is?"

"Well, perhaps further tests might expose its origins-" The physician started but was once again cut off.

"Merlin?"

"In a minute, Arthur. Is the anything I can do to help?" Merlin asked Gaius who rubbed his temple thoughtfully.

"I can't think of anything I'm afraid-"

"_Merlin_!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Merlin said, quickly making his way back up the stairs to discover Arthur had made a fruitless attempt to crawl out of the bed and find him.

"Merlin, where are you?" Arthur asked fearfully, groping around on the floor on his hands and knees.

"I'm here. I said I was coming back." Merlin said, quickly helping him to his feet and back into the bed.

Arthur said nothing as the itchy woollen blankets were pulled over him and there was the sound of a chair being dragged over the floor the side of the bed.

Merlin sunk into the chair and sighed heavily, tired from lack of sleep. Since he had first found Arthur, most of his time had been spent worrying himself half to death and flicking absentmindedly through some of the books that Gaius had suggest he should read through to try and find more information about the cube. He'd found nothing, however and it had only dampened his spirits.

A glance at Arthur led Merlin to believe he had fallen asleep again. Perhaps he could go to sleep himself now…

Merlin crawled into his makeshift bed, not bothering to stifle a yawn, and fell thankfully onto a pillow.

"Merlin, are you there?" Arthur asked suddenly, alarmed and apparently not asleep.

"Yes, I'm here." Merlin sighed.

There was a pause.

"Merlin, are you still there?"

"Yes."

Another pause.

"Merlin-"

"Go to sleep, Arthur."

* * *

_He wasn't sure how he had got there but what Arthur did know, as he sat up, was that he was nowhere near Camelot. _

_Long spears stuck out of the ground, ragged flags flying from some of them in the cold night air. Bodies of dead knights lay everywhere, piled among their also dead foes. A few crows picked at the carcasses while others circled in the air, cawing with menacing voices. _

_The freezing air bit him as Arthur climbed to his feet and stared around at the battle that had long since finished. _

_Why had there been a fight? There wasn't any war going as far as Arthur knew._

_Suddenly he heard a noise – a quiet coughing whimper from behind a heap of corpses. _

_Someone was still alive! _

_Arthur quickly made his way around the carcases to discover a horrible sight._

_There was Merlin, lying in a pool of his own blood that had stained his clothes, and a sword embedded in his stomach. As the prince stood there in utter shock and horror Merlin coughed again and caught sight of him._

_"Arthur?" He whispered; his eyes glazed with pain. _

_Arthur took a moment to react, paralysed with dismay. Once he had regained the ability to think he stumbled over to his friend's side, kneeling down on the blood smeared grass and pulling Merlin's cold body into his arms while the boy struggled to breath. _

_"What happened? What are you doing here?" Arthur asked, eyes wide, "What am I doing here?" _

_"Had to fight…" Merlin croaked, "Had to save Camelot…"_

_There was a silence that was only interrupted by the occasional caw of a crow and Merlin's irregular pained breath, which broke Arthur's hear to listen to. _

_"I'm going to die" Merlin rasped. _

_"No, no you're not going die!" The prince said quickly._

_He looked at the sword stuck fast in Merlin's stomach and reached to pull it out but his friend grabbed his arm with a bloody hand._

_"Leave it, Arthur. There's nothing you can do."_

_"I wont let you die!"_

_"You've been a good friend to me, Arthur," Merlin whispered, "but you need to let me go."_

_"No, no I won't. I can't!" Arthur cried, grabbing Merlin's hand, as it went limp on his arm, "No! Don't leave me!" _

_Arthur stared into the unseeing eyes of his friend, shaking with grief and refusing to accept that he was gone. _

_"Merlin, wake up." He whispered in a broken voice, tears swimming in his eyes as he shook the limp form in his arms, "Please, wake up." _

Those glassy blue eyes continued to stare up at the starry night sky as the prince fell upon his lost friend and sobbed uncontrollably to the night.

_

* * *

_

Arthur shot awake, tears in his eyes and shouting wildly. He struggled to breath as grief strangled him.

Before he knew what he was doing his eyes were suddenly open and that blinding white-hot light flared into the room. But it was different to before – more like a long sharp beam than a wave, acutely focused on one point.

That one point was Merlin's arm. The young warlock had been standing in his bedroom doorway, keeping an eye on the prince, when suddenly Arthur had jerked awake, screaming. His eyes had suddenly opened and Merlin saw the scorching light shooting out towards him. He raised an arm to protect his eyes but the searing heat melted right through his forearm in a matter of seconds…


	12. Chapter Twelve

The light disappeared as Arthur re-closed his eyes but the pain did not leave with it.

Merlin fell to his knees. He looked down at his arm.

There was a perfectly round hole there, about ten centimetres in diameter and roughly three deep. The smell of burning flesh reached Merlin's nostrils as he stared at it with horror. The light had burned the flesh away completely and he was lucky it hadn't gone right through his forearm.

Arthur fell off the bed and sprawled on the floor, sobbing violently, beside himself with grief; unaware that the things he had seen had been a dream. He attempted to pull himself to his feet by grabbing the bedside table but collapsed, bring the things on top of the cupboard down with him.

"What's going on?" Gaius demanded, darting up the stairs and sweeping his gaze over the room, seeing the chaotic Arthur and Merlin who was clutching his arm whilst in a kind of shocked stupor.

"My arm…" Merlin faltered.

Arthur didn't hear Merlin's voice and still though him to be dead. He held his head in his hands and rocked back and forth on the floor, tears flowing freely.

"What happened?" Gaius asked, pulling Merlin to his feet and staring at the hole in his arm.

"He opened his eyes. It was the light." Merlin told him. Suddenly the shock evaporated as the pain set in. He seized his arm and squeezed it tightly, blood running out from between his fingers and drizzling to the floor.

"I'll get you a bandage." Gaius announced quickly and raced away to his many surgical belongings.

Merlin ripped off his neckerchief and wrapped it around his arm to stop the blood before hurrying over to Arthur.

"Arthur, Arthur, its alright! What's wrong?" Merlin said, grabbing the prince's failing arms and trying to calm him down.

Arthur heard him and it took a moment to realize that it had all been a dream, but that didn't stop joy overwhelming him in an instant.

"_MERLIN_!" He cried and pulled his friend into a hug that would have crushed Merlin had he been but a little skinnier, "I thought you'd died!" Arthur choked into his shoulder.

"Its okay, everything's fine." Merlin reassured him, gladly returning the hug.

Arthur sobbed more incoherent noises into his shoulder and began to laugh insanely.

Once he had calmed down a little, Merlin helped him back onto the bed where Arthur lay, clutching the blankets and still laughing like a maniac.

Gaius bustled in; arms heaped with bandages, and peeled the blood soaked scarf off Merlin's arm before wrapping it up tightly with the cloth and putting it in a sling. Merlin couldn't believe just how sore it felt but then again, having said that, holes in arms have been known to hurt.

Suddenly the door to Gaius's workshop opened and Uther of all people came through it.

"I came for-" The king began but broke off, seeing Arthur at the top of the stairs in the bed, "What's he doing there?"

"Ah, Sire." Gaius said, pulling a face, "There's a lot to explain, I'm afraid."

"What do you mean?" Uther demanded, marching up the stairs towards them.

"I didn't want to mention it to you until we knew more about the circumstances." Gaius said as the king strolled to the bedside, "But his highness has a strange illness."

"So, this is where he's been hiding for the past few days. No wonder I couldn't get hold of him." The king muttered, not paying the slightest attention to Gaius, "Get up, boy. Thought you could escape training by pretending to be sick, did you?" He said, looming over Arthur who was blindly staring around him, eyes still closed.

"This is no hoax, Sire." Gaius said, "There's this cube. I fear it to have magical properties."

The king snapped his head up at the sound of magic and his face immediately hardened.

"What are you talking about, man?" He growled.

Gaius quickly made his way into his office, grabbed the cube and came back again.

"We don't know how or why but this has done something to Arthur." He said, presenting the cube to the king who took it and held it into the light, staring at it analytically.

Merlin had tuned out of the conversation at this point and had once again taken his place by Arthur's side, not entirely sure why he was there but not really caring.

"Try and get some sleep, Arthur. We'll sort everything out." He reassured the prince, holding his hand and rubbing his thumb over it as Arthur sunk further into the bed. Merlin watched as his face relaxed slightly. He knew someone was there for him.

Meanwhile the king stood, frown on face, trying to understand what had happened as Gaius relayed the past days to him.

"He can't open his eyes?!" Uther exclaimed incredulously as Gaius came to that part, "Don't be ridiculous! I've never heard such nonsense." He said and grabbed Arthur's shoulder; jerking him from the calm state he had slipped in to, "Open your eyes, boy."

"No, that's not a good idea." Gaius said quickly, "Look what happened to Merlin."

Merlin stood up, tearing his eyes away from Arthur, and held up his forearm to the king. The bandage was already dark and glistening with blood as Uther looked at it with bewilderment.

After a moment the king swallowed and ran a hand through his hair.

"What are we going to do?" He asked Gaius.

Gaius faltered and fidgeted with the hem of his sleeve, trying to think of a way to tell the king that he had no idea what was going to happen to Arthur.

"I have been conducting searches to find the origins of the cube, My Lord, but I have found nothing as of yet." He eventually said.

"You mean he's going to stay like this forever!"

"I-I don't know."

Uther growled with frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose while pacing up and down the room with one hand behind his back.

"I shall have Geoffrey of Monmouth aid you with the search." He decided, "Will Arthur be safe here?"

"Yes." Merlin told him absently before Gaius had time to reply, still rubbing his thumb over Arthur's hand.

The king looked at them for a moment.

"Very well. I take my leave." With that he sailed out of the room.

* * *

Merlin managed to get Arthur to sleep a few hours after the king had left and joined Gaius with the prodding of the cube, which was one of the most tedious and boring things ever demised but his uncle said it may help to open it further. Gaius thought that the box may have some kind of mechanism inside and if someone were to poke the right area then it would open and perhaps help their understanding of it if they knew what was inside.

Merlin yawned, stabbed the cube again with a pair of tweezers and smothered another yawn. He hadn't slept well the previous night, as Arthur had kept shooting awake, shouting murder.

Gaius, meanwhile dubiously turned the dusty page of another book and scanned through it, hoping, like he did with the ones before it, that this page would hold the answers he needed. In truth it was not just _him_ who needed it, and it was not just Arthur either. It was quite obvious that Merlin was extremely worried as Gaius watched him prod the cube fiercely again. The physician feared that if Arthur died from this illness that Merlin would also die of grief.

* * *

A couple of hours later – around midday – Arthur woke again and frantically called for Merlin, even though his friend was there by the bed as he'd promised he would be, having been dismissed from the cube examining.

Merlin took a few seconds to answer. What could he say, the truth or what Arthur needed to hear?

"I'm here." Was all he said.

"I hurt you didn't I." Arthur's voice sounded broken.

"I'm okay, don't worry, it's just a scratch."

"You're lying." Arthur said, trying to sound sarcastic but finding it difficult, "I know you, Merlin, and I know your lying."

Merlin touched the bandage on his arm. It really hurt but his heart was more wounded. The light in Arthur's eyes would have killed him had it burnt entirely through his arm and reached his head. But looking at the prince now, blind and in more pain than anyone should have to bear, that's what was really killing Merlin.

"Merlin, please, how many times have you said we were friends? If we are then please, tell me the truth." Arthur persisted.

The young wizard sighed.

"Okay, I got lucky. You only hit me on the arm. I swear its nothing. Don't worry and try to get some rest."

Arthur reached for his hand and squeezed it hard. He felt guilty. He understood it had been an accident but couldn't help but blame himself anyway. The prince sincerely hoped Merlin was not lying and whatever had happened to him wasn't as bad as he'd initially thought.

"Gaius doesn't know what to do with the cube, does he?" He said after a while.

There was a pause.

"No." Merlin told him cautiously.

"I don't want to die like this."

"You're not going to die!" Merlin snapped, "I won't let you."

"Merlin," Arthur said affectionately, "You may have saved me far more times than I deserve in the past but I don't think even you can rescue me from this."

"Don't be a prat." Merlin told him quickly."

"Let me finish."

"Sorry."

"I would make you the prince to take my place when I die but I think my father would have a heart attack." Arthur tried to laugh but it instead turned into a strangled splutter.

This statement would have flattered Merlin but the thought of Arthur dieing blocked out all other emotion except a grim determination to save him.

"Why would you do that?" He asked curiously while automatically taking a glass of water off the bedside table and handing it to Arthur who took it gratefully.

"Because, Merlin, you have all the qualities a prince and future king needs. You're kind, brave, too loyal for your own good, you care for others and well," Arthur paused thoughtfully, "I'm sorry but I can't give you sword skills."

"That's quite understandable." Merlin laughed, remembering how useless he was with any weapon, let alone a sword.

Arthur spluttered into the glass of water as he said this.

"You're far too modest, Merlin." He scolded fondly, "If I live then I'm going to have to teach you the art of bragging."

"I look forward to it."


	13. Chapter Thirteen

The next day Gaius found Merlin had fallen asleep on the floor by the bed, head resting on his arms that were folded on the side of the bunk. The physician couldn't help but notice the bandage around his right forearm was already wet with blood and went over to wake him so that he could re-bandage it.

"Merlin," He said, placing a hand on his nephew's shoulder, "come on. Time to get up. You need a new bandage."

Merlin lifted his head; eyes blurred with sleep, and yawned.

"How'd you get on? Find anything?" He asked, dragging himself to his feet and stretching leisurely.

"Not yet, I'm afraid."

There was a pause.

"Is he going to be alright?" Merlin asked eventually, gazing down at Arthur who, for once, was sleeping without squirming in pain.

Gaius set his jaw and didn't answer. There was another pause.

"Come on, let's get that arm of yours fixed up." The physician finally said, motioning Merlin out of the room.

Once Merlin's arm had been re-bandaged the young warlock made to go back to Arthur but Gaius stopped him.

"You don't need to worry about that. I'll take care of him until you get back."

"Get back from where?" Merlin asked, puzzled, reluctantly walking down the stairs he had reached.

"I need a fresh load of books. I've read through these ones." Gaius said, gesturing widely at the stacks of books lining the room and covering the tables.

"Okay." Merlin said with another yawn and ambled sleepily out the door, glancing back at his room but brushing the worry on his face aside.

Gaius made his way up to the spare room and began to tidy up a bit (a deed that was well over due), scuffling about as he threw an assortment of clothes into the cupboard.

"Merlin, is that you?" Arthur asked, hearing the noise and apparently not asleep as Gaius had initially thought.

"No, its me." Gaius answered.

"Oh." Arthur sounded disappointed.

"You wouldn't happen to know what day it is, would you?" The physician asked casually, folding up a shirt and placing it in a chest of draws.

"No." Arthur said bluntly.

Gaius was slightly surprised. He didn't expect Arthur to know the actual day, especially while in the state he was, but the physician had thought he would at least understand what this day meant to Merlin...

"Its Merlin's birthday today." He said, standing, arms folded, a few metres from the bed.

An array of emotions flitted across Arthur's face. First there was confusion and puzzlement but it was quickly overlaid by guilt for not remembering.

"It is?"

"Yes."

Arthur felt truly awful now. He had wanted to make Merlin's birthday special but now his servant was going to have to spend the day looking after him.

Gaius went out the door and left Arthur thinking over what he was going to do.

What sort of present would he want? A scarf? No, he had enough of those.

Arthur didn't have a clue what to get him but as his best friend he had to find something…

* * *

Merlin returned to Gaius's workshop some time later, a wheelbarrow filled with books coming with him. He slammed them down in front of Gaius on the table and they both sneezed as dust filled the air.

"Right, Merlin you take that half and I'll take this one." Gaius said, pulling one of the towers towards him.

Merlin nodded and hauled the other pile into his arms and staggered back up the stairs to his room where he sunk into a chair, slammed the books on the floor and set one on his lap to read.

"Merlin?" Arthur asked.

The young warlock looked up.

"Yes?"

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Wednesday. Why?" Merlin asked curiously.

"It's your birthday." Arthur told him, grinning widely at Merlin's ill memory. Merlin frowned for a moment and then realized it was true. _How could he have forgotten his own birthday?_ He asked himself incredulously, "So," Arthur went on, "I've thought long and hard about what to get you but the only conclusion I've reached is a scarf and that's just boring so, what do you want?"

"You mean you want to get me something?" Merlin asked foggily.

"Yeah, why not?"

"Well, erm…" Merlin thought for a moment, "When you're better you can buy me a drink," He said, then added, "Or three."

"Gladly." Arthur replied.

Merlin was surprised at this. He remembered asking Arthur to buy him a drink before but the prince had reclined in his prattish way. It was almost scary how much he had changed since Merlin had turned up…

"I never told you when my birthday was." He said a moment later, wondering where Arthur had got the information.

"Oh, Gaius mentioned it." Arthur said, turned over, went to sleep and began snoring.

* * *

Book after book was scanned under Merlin's watchful eyes. He read 'The History Of Ancient Artefacts', 'Many Men's Adventures At Sea' and a book called 'Interesting Facts About Greek Temples And Relics', which Merlin had to rename 'Boring Rubbish About Nothing In Particular'.

In short he found nothing and was ready to give up when he chanced upon a book that had been hidden under 'The Answers To Everything Roman'.

It was titled 'Myths Of The Old Times' and looked pretty much the same as all the other books; big, brown and about as old as a fossil.

He opened it with interest, fascination written across his face as he found it to be very much like his spell book in appearance. He swiped a sheaf of loose parchment away as he turned the next page.

The heading caught his eye.

_The NightmareChild_

Was that good or bad? Merlin hadn't a clue but something told him to read the following paragraphs.

_Many years ago, when magic was not forbidden, The NightmareChild was created. The great sorcerers – Jethro, Koran and Nimueh – for took a secret meeting in the mountains of Berwyn to assemble a weapon. This weapon, The NightmareChild, is believed to have the ability of holding the spirits of lost enchanters, warlocks and sorceress after they have died. The purpose of this is not yet fully understood but the men of the west think it to bring visions upon whomever the cube chooses. These visions are believed to one-day drive the watcher mad with the horrors they see. _

_Jethro, Koran and Nimueh cast the curse of Many Deaths upon the cube as well as innumerable other enchantments. No soul knows of a way to unbind these curses once they have taken hold of a living being. It is said to be impossible. Once The NightmareChild's victim has been established there is no cure. The NightmareChild's victim will die._

Merlin took a deep breath. This was it.

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**Please, please, please review! I've decided to post no more chapters until I have 55 reviews at the very least! Come on, people! PLEASE!**

**Merlin will officially give a hug to anyone who reviews! **


	14. Chapter Fourteen

"Are you sure?" Merlin asked, chewing his fingers to shreds and pacing up and down the room while Gaius inspected the book.

"Beyond any doubt." His uncle replied, "This," he picked up the cube, "_is_ The NightmareChild."

Merlin plummeted into a chair and stared far into the distance, an unnaturally old look in his eyes for someone so young.

"Then there's no hope." He said, his voice cracking halfway through.

Suspense hung thickly in the air for a moment.

"None."

Merlin dipped his head and swallowed a lump in his throat. He felt that crushing failure return and an icy fist clutched his heart. Spiders began to spin cobwebs of defeat into his mind as the truth set in.

"Is there anything, anything at all we can do?" Merlin whispered, choking on his own words.

Gaius shook his head.

All his hopes thwarted, Merlin broke down in a matter of seconds as a mess of emotions welled up inside his chest.

_He's going to die. He's going to die. He's going to die._

Words spoke themselves inside his head as Gaius hugged him tightly. After a few minutes, which seemed like a lifetime Gaius let go of him and held him firmly by the shoulders.

"I must go and tell the king." Gaius said quietly, "Then I shall make a cordial to ease his passing. Stay here."

Merlin looked up at him with dull unseeing eyes and nodded once. Gaius waited there, clutching his shoulders for a moment longer before hurrying out of the door, which slammed shut behind him, loudly echoing around the suddenly silent room and sounding a hundred times more powerful to Merlin.

Gentle, blissful, unaware snoring carried to him from his room where Arthur slept, completely oblivious to what was happening. It was almost unfair in a way.

Merlin slumped back into the furthest reaches of the chair and lent forward into his hands where he hid his face and tried to stop the tears from coming. But they came.

He was too upset to hear the ghostly voices that suddenly began to whisper to him.

"Merlin."

"Merlin."

"Merlin."

Merlin sniffed and wiped a warm salty tear away from his eyes.

"Merlin."

He heard it that time.

"Who-who's there?"

"Over here," The voices hissed, "on the table."

Merlin cast his gaze over to the table where the cube sat. What got his attention was that it was no longer open; the smaller diced sized cubes had slipped back inside the box.

He blinked at it.

"Merlin." The voices hissed again.

"What? What do you want?" Merlin asked, wondering if he was going mad as he shifted over to the table and stared at the cube.

"We want what you want, Emrys."

"What do I want?"

"You want to save the young Pendragon. You can do that." The NightmareChild replied.

"What? How? Tell me!" Merlin demanded, seizing the cube.

"This is no easy decision to make, Emrys." Said the voices, "The only way you can save the prince is by taking his place."

"I'll do it." Merlin said quickly as a glimmer of hope began to grow in his chest.

"You will die. We will not drag out the pain of the visions for long. We will kill you almost instantly."

Merlin paused a moment. He was scared but when it came to choosing the life of Arthur or his own there was no choice.

"Are you willing to do this?" The voices asked in an almost curious way.

"For Arthur I am willing to die." Merlin replied quietly.

"So be it."

"Can…can I say goodbye?" Merlin asked, a lump rising in his throat.

"Hurry, Emrys. We will not wait for long." Someone laughed. It sounded suspiciously like Nimueh…

Merlin set the cube down on the table and quickly stumbled up the stairs to his room.

* * *

"Arthur, Arthur, wake up."

Arthur felt a hand on his shoulder shaking him gently and he sat up a little, hearing Merlin's voice.

"Yeah?"

There was a pause and the prince waited curiously for his friend to speak.

"I…umm…I've found a way to cure you…" Merlin eventually said, his voice sounding slightly flat.

"What? Really?" Arthur asked with excitement.

"Yeah…"

"And?"

"You're going to be alright in a minute." Merlin said. Arthur said nothing so he carried on, "I'm going to save you but don't worry about me."

"Why would I worry about you?"

"I'm going somewhere. Not entirely sure where…"

"What are you on about, Merlin?"

"Nothing, nothing but don't hate me for it. I don't have a choice."

"I know your odd, Merlin, but this is extreme even for your standards." Arthur said, trying to sound whimsical but finding it difficult as a worried confusion filled his mind.

"I know you'll be a great king, Arthur, but promise me you'll let magic return to Camelot. Magic isn't bad." Merlin said, confusing Arthur further.

"What's wrong? What's going to happen?" The prince asked, his forehead furrowing.

"I just…uhh…goodbye." Merlin choked, paused a moment and hurried away, leaving Arthur somewhat puzzled.

What on earth was he on about? Had he really found a cure?

Doubts began to gather in Arthur's mind. Merlin sounded as if he wasn't coming back. He sounded as though…

Oh no.

Arthur guessed what he was going to do. He knew what absurd lengths Merlin would go to, to save him. He remembered how hard he had tried to convince him about the snakes in Valiant's shield, how he had gone after him to rescue him from Sofia and disobeyed his orders to stay behind and followed him to the Labyrinth of Gedref. Arthur had no proof of his theory about how he'd survived the Questing beast attack but he was quite certain Merlin had been behind it somehow. After all, who had killed the creature after it had bitten him?

What if Merlin was going to save him by some means but at the cost of his own life? It wasn't that far fetched really. It _was_ something Merlin would do…

Arthur quickly crawled out of the bed and dragged himself blindly over the floorboards to where he hoped the door was. He fell down the stairs and fumbled around for a supporting table.

* * *

**Remember, Merlin is still giving out hugs to reviewers! I'm not posting the next chapter until I have 65 reviews..........**

**Thank you to all those people out there who put in the time to review! I've got over 50 now! THANK YOU! I love you all!**


	15. Chapter Fiveteen

There was silence for a moment. Arthur couldn't hear anything. "Merlin? Merlin, where are you?" The young prince asked anxiously, "Merlin, answer me and don't do anything stupid!"

"It's too late. I have to save you, you're the prince and far more important to the kingdom than I am." Merlin's voice said quietly.

Arthur tried to stand up but he was too weak.

"I can't mind the kingdom if I know you'd sacrificed yourself for me. I couldn't live with that and you know it."

"Sorry, I've made my choice and it's your life and your safety, not mine. Just for once, let me be the hero to save you, my friend."

Arthur suddenly heard that same quiet clicking that he'd heard before when he'd opened the box. Merlin wasn't going to listen to him.

"Merlin, stop! STOP!" Arthur couldn't have shouted harder but Merlin didn't answer, "Please, Merlin, do you want me to live everyday of my life thinking that you died because of me. I want my best friend by my side when I'm king! You know I'll never be able to rule Camelot without your help! Please!"

The box opened. For one second nothing happened but then suddenly a blazing hot white light filled the room. Arthur was about to say more but then his eyes abruptly cracked opened for the first time in days, bleary from disuse. He saw the light and he thought he was going to cry. It was beautiful but scary. His sight was blurry but he could see Merlin.

"Merlin, is…is that you?" Arthur stammered. His friend was the same as always but he seemed exhausted. The cube was sitting in his hands and the silver was melting into his wrists as it had done to Arthur before him, "Am I really seeing you?" The prince exclaimed, blinking in the fast diminishing light and trying to sort through his jumbled thoughts.

"You're going to be alright now." Merlin told him, his face a twisted grimace of agony as the silver ran up his veins and into his head, "Don't worry about me. You're going to live." With a cry of shock he suddenly fell to the floor as though someone had rammed into him at full speed. Arthur remembered that moment, that pain that he'd suffered. He knelt down beside Merlin as another spasm swept through the boy's skinny frame.

"I know it hurts." The prince said, holding him up to his shoulder as Merlin began to writhe with the cruel burning sensation that Arthur could remember only too well, "Why would you save me, Merlin? Why sacrifice yourself for me?" The prince asked, trying to ignore the lump in his throat and the pitiful sobs that escaped Merlin's mouth.

Merlin moved in his arms. His eyes burned with that unbearable light and he almost sank his nails into Arthur's skin, but his friend said nothing.

"Because I owe you." He told Arthur through gritted teeth, clutching the prince's shirt collar to stop himself from slipping away, "So many times you've saved me, this is my moment to repay you."

Arthur looked down at him, tears swimming in his eyes. He knew what happened next. Any second now Merlin would be seeing the visions of the people he loved dyeing.

"In a minute, Merlin, you're going to see something but it's not real. Don't believe any of it." He said, as Merlin almost climbed over is shoulder in an attempt to escape the pain.

Suddenly the young warlock jolted and fell to the floor again.

There was something like a bolt of lightning and he saw a flash of a sword. Arthur was dead in a second, only just having time to squeeze Merlin's hand before his grip faltered and his eyes glazed over with pain, unseeing and clouded.

"_No_!" Merlin cried as the image disappeared and another came before him.

Gaius's body broken on the floor, a sight that made Merlin almost throw up.

"Its not real. Its not real." Arthur told him, pulling him into a hug as Merlin sobbed uncontrollably into his shoulder and the vision evaporated.

The prince looked on helplessly. He couldn't do a thing to help his friend. Is this how Merlin had felt the entire time when he had been like this? How could he have stood it?

"It's going to kill me…" Merlin gasped through gritted teeth, screwing his face up with agony.

"I thought that too." Arthur told him, holding him tight and rubbing his arm, "Don't let it win you over. You've got to fight it."

"No, no you don't understand." Merlin hissed, "It's going to accelerate the process. It said it would kill me almost instantly."

"_What_?" Arthur exclaimed with horror.

"Don't let me die on my own!" Merlin cried.

"I won't. I'd never." Arthur choked, "Please, you can't die. Not on your birthday."

"My birthday?"

"Yeah, I was going to buy you that drink or three, remember. You don't want to miss that." Arthur tried to laugh but it sounded strangled.

"I don't think I've got a choice." Merlin croaked.

"You can't die!" Arthur blurted out, "Please, you can't!"

This was like his dreams but this time it was real. This time Merlin would die.

"Everyone dies, Arthur. No one can stop that."

"But not you, not now! You can't die instead of me!" Arthur cried.

Suddenly he spotted the cube that was some way off on the floor. He felt a surge of anger boil up inside him at the very sight of the thing that had caused all this hurt.

He climbed to his feet and staggered towards the cube, wanting nothing more than to destroy it – maybe that would save Merlin. But he had still not recovered and his knees buckled beneath him and he crashed to the floor, the accursed object only inches from his outstretched hand.

Meanwhile Merlin could feel the cube beginning to slowly murder him. It was happening a whole lot faster than he'd anticipated and hurt more than he thought was possible for him to bear. It was like a scorching cold that completely encased his body and made movement impossible. And then there were the visions. They held nothing but death and misery. How could Arthur have suffered this for so long? He barely cared about any of these things though. All he could think about was how Arthur would now live and make Camelot a beautiful place. The only thing he regretted was that he had never summoned the courage to tell the prince about his magic. Someone would tell him one day but it wouldn't be the same.

Merlin would have poured out his soul to his friend right there and then had he not had a sense of dread lodged in his throat, constricting him.

Where was Arthur? He'd said he wouldn't let him die alone yet he was gone.

"Arthur?" Merlin croaked, groping around for a comforting embrace.

Arthur managed to crawl over to him and took the boy into his arms again, rocking him slightly as Merlin buried his face in his shoulder. He found the others hand and clamped it inside his own, knowing these would be the last few moments he would ever spend with his friend.

He wished he had some strong comforting words for him but Arthur's mind was a tangle of emotions that would not let him form a sentence. It seemed like only a few minutes ago he had been laughing and joking with Merlin on the boat, happily embarking on a spontaneous fishing trip, completely unaware at where it would lead them.

It wasn't fair.

"Please, Arthur," Merlin murmured, "Make Gaius understand that this was the only thing I could do."

"I will." Arthur whispered into his raven-black hair, tears now falling freely down his face as he hugged him tightly and rested his chin on his friend's head.

"But most importantly _you_ need to know that you _will_ be a great king. You don't need me." Merlin went on.

"You know that's not true."

Merlin did.

"Please, don't hate me for this. I did it to save you."

"I could never hate you, Merlin."

Merlin felt another spasm sweep through his body and he coughed painfully. His hand, still hooked tightly to Arthur's, began to loose its grip. Arthur grabbed it as Merlin went limp and his thin frame sunk down further into his arms. The young warlocks chest rose and fell once more before he ceased breathing and became still.

He died.

Merlin died.

* * *

**DON'T PANIC! HE'S NOT DEAD! C'mon, as if I would do away with the wonderful Merlin! But remember...if you want to find out what happens you MUST review! **


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Well, I bet you were just dying for this update, so I posted it quite early! Please tell me if this makes you cry! **

* * *

As he looked at the cold, pale form on the floor Arthur found it impossible to stop tears from cascading down his cheeks and a hard lump of ice welling up in his throat. There he was; Merlin, the young boy who had been by his side for so many adventures, was dead right in front of him. His eyes were closed – Arthur would never see that mischievous blue glint or worried glimmer again.

He stayed there for some time, staring blindly at his friend, unable to accept the truth.

* * *

A few minutes later, the door to the workshop suddenly opened and Uther appeared, looking dubious. He caught sight of Arthur, slumped on the floor with that servant of his huddled in his lap. Neither boy looked well, Arthur's face was drained of colour and there was no mistaking that the servant was dead. Uther was curious but he had no care for a _servant_. All that had his attention was Arthur, who no longer had his eyes closed and even though he was grey faced and an utter mess, he was not writhing in agony as he had been for the past days.

Arthur slowly turned to him with dull, empty eyes and climbed to his feet.

"Thank the heavens! Arthur, my son." Uther ran to him and embraced his son, but the young prince did not move and stood, looking at were Merlin lay. "Arthur, are you really and truly fully recovered?" The king asked, awkwardly releasing his stiff son.

"Yes, father." Came the reply in a hollow voice.

"Let's get you back to your chambers. You need rest. You'll need it to be prepared for our next tournament." Uther tried to move his son but Arthur stayed there, "Arthur, are you alright?"

The prince wasn't supposed to cry. Not in front of his father anyway. He had to be brave and a great warrior but at that point, Arthur was absolutely broken.

His heart was crying.

"He saved me. Merlin gave his life instead of mine." Arthur choked.

"Well, he's a good servant." Uther said carelessly.

"He's not a servant! He's my best friend! Don't you understand that?" Arthur yelled but then was forced to calm down. He was still weak and he felt sick for a moment. "He's my best friend," He repeated, "and I have no idea how I can save him from this." Arthur looked down at Merlin's cold face, "I can't do anything to save my best friend." He whispered, biting his own lip, trying to stop the tears from falling.

"Best friends with a servant indeed! I never heard such-" The king began.

Arthur turned to him, his eyes flashing with absolute fury.

"Don't you dare." He spat in a dangerously quiet voice.

The king looked taken aback by this sudden ferocity but quickly hid it under a cloak of command.

"You can't stay here forever! You're the prince of Camelot."

"I don't really care about Camelot right now." Arthur snapped back. Uther looked at his son but said nothing, "Even when he thought I was going to die, Merlin never gave up on me. He saved me. I'm staying with him, it would be an insult to his memory not to. I wont disappoint him."

"Then you are going to disappoint _and_ disobey me."

Arthur looked at his father, the tears were there, on his cheeks but that didn't matter, not anymore.

"Don't make me choose, father, because I'm not leaving. Not until I find a way to…to…" Arthur faltered. How was he supposed to return Merlin to life? Were all his feeble ideas of somehow resurrecting Merlin just a stupid dream?

The king snorted.

"Arthur, you grow far too attached to things-"

"_Merlin_ is _not_ a _thing_!" Arthur snarled.

"Fine, have it your way. It's not like it matters now he's dead." The king waved a lazy hand disrespectfully at Merlin, "I have business to attend to." He said and with that he strutted out of the room, leaving Arthur in a worse state than he had been in before.

Unable to stand any longer the prince slumped to the floor, exhausted, and looked down at Merlin's still form with a hard blank expression on his face. His eyes overflowed with emotion at the sight of his friend's white pallor and he had to look away as his heart tripled in size and flew to his mouth. He took a deep strangled breath and buried his face in his hands, his shoulders beginning to shake uncontrollably as he sobbed quietly to himself.

This was unbearable and for a moment he wished he were dead as a wave of crushing bitterness trampled over him, relentlessly hammering his already smashed heart.

"Arthur."

Arthur heard a voice and snapped his head up, furiously wiping away the tears on his face and casting his gaze around the room. Only he and Merlin were in Gaius's workshop. There was no one else.

"Arthur."

This time the prince recognized the voices. They belonged to the cube – he remembered them from the temple. His eyes roved the floor for the box and saw the dammed thing sitting a few meters away, just under the table.

"Arthur."

"What?" The young prince spat sourly, hugging his knees and glaring at a spot in the floor in front of him.

"You want Merlin alive. We can bring him back," The voices hissed. Arthur looked up with sudden interest, "but only if you help us."

Sceptically, Arthur looked away again.

"Shut up." He said angrily but secretly he was slightly curious.

"Help us and we will return his soul." The cube repeated itself.

"Help you with what?" Arthur asked, his lesser instincts getting the better of him.

"That's none of your concern but we promise we will return Merlin to you."

Arthur thought this over. He was upset – far too distraught to see that the cube was obviously lying. His friendship for Merlin blinded him.

But then he heard it.

"Arthur," He knew it was Merlin, "trust in me and destroy it. Everything will be fine."

"Merlin?" Arthur croaked in a small voice, looking around but seeing no one.

"Destroy the cube." Merlin's voice said again, "It wants to hurt more people. Don't listen to it."

Arthur's head was beginning to spin. His best friend had died, he had voices in his head and a mysterious, clearly magical cube for him to either destroy or aid.

Was he going mad?

"Destroy it!" Merlin said again with a sense of urgency.

There was a pause.

"Merlin, please, come back." Arthur choked, "I _need_ you."

"Kill it, Arthur." Merlin said after a moment, his voice the epitome of sadness.

"Will that make you live?"

An unsettled silence filled the room.

"No."

"Its not fair." Arthur sobbed and buried his face in his hands again.

"I know." Merlin said quietly, "But if you don't destroy the cube it will hurt hundreds of more innocent people."

"Yes, you're right." The prince finally managed to say.

"Don't do it!" The other voices suddenly spoke up.

Arthur ignored them and looked around for something, anything that he could use to kill it. A bread knife on one of the tables caught his eye and he scrabbled to his knees. He crawled over to the table and grabbed the blade as the voices warned him again.

"Don't do it!"

Arthur ignored them again and dragged himself over the floor to the small wooden box that had caused so much trouble. It had killed Merlin, ruined his life and now he had to stop it from hurting anyone else.

"Merlin?"

"Yes."

"Goodbye, you idiot."

Trembling, the prince raised the small knife in front of the cube and using all the rage he found inside himself, he finally stabbed the dammed thing.

Burning light shot out of the crack in the wood as the knife drove right through the box. Arthur thought his head was about to explode with the sheer power that gushed out of the thing in waves. He was crushed flat to the floor and suddenly a tremendous explosion sent him to the edge of the room, leaving him dazed but alive. The light was gone in a matter of seconds and he saw the cube, cracked in half, completely broken.

It was destroyed.

* * *

**Okay, so Merlin isn't alive yet but in the next chapter, I promise he will live! As If I'd kill Merlin! Tsk, tsk...**

**KEEP REVIEWING! I can hardly believe I've got so many! **

**I thank ****_everyone_ ****who has reviewed. You know who you are. I love each and every one of you! **


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Arthur shakily climbed to his feet, his heart beating abnormally fast, and looked slowly around the room.

He'd done it. He'd killed it. It was all over now. But that was the problem. It was over. There was nothing Arthur could do to save his best friend. He was going to have to accept that he was gone. But Arthur couldn't. He couldn't do that.

He fell against a wall and slowly slid to the floor, a deaden expression on his face as he cast his gaze over to Merlin's lifeless body.

No more sarcastic banter. No more gawky idiot. No more fiercely loyal friend. No more Merlin.

Right then and there Arthur hated himself for not listening to Merlin. If he'd only put his arrogant nature aside and listened to his friend in the temple then Merlin would be alive – none of this would have happened.

_Its all my fault_, he thought.

What happened next was so sudden and unexpected it left Arthur feeling almost too shocked to move.

Merlin breathed.

One second he had been lying there, completely still, and the next he suddenly sat up with a jolt, taking a huge deep breath.

Arthur leapt up, mouth agape as Merlin staggered to his feet, gulping in lung fulls of air.

Was this a dream?

"Merlin?"

Merlin turned around, only just having time to brace himself as Arthur smacked into him with the biggest of hugs. Merlin stopped moving. It was a somewhat new experience but it just felt right and unconsciously he embraced his friend, eyes closing happily.

Both of the boys stayed there for a moment.

"But…I…but…how?" Arthur exclaimed, eventually releasing him but keeping a firm hold of his shoulders as if to keep him safe from anything that might harm him.

"I-I could do with drink." Merlin said slowly and broke into a wide grin – something that Arthur had sorely missed.

"Whoa, careful there!" The prince said as Merlin's legs suddenly buckled. Arthur just managed to save him from crashing to the floor by sliding under his arm. He then helped him onto a bench by a table as Merlin began to shiver. Arthur could feel his cold skin beneath his shirt, "Are you alright?" He asked with concern.

"I'm freezing." Merlin mumbled, teeth chattering.

Arthur jumped up and fetched a blanket from Merlin's room before wrapping it around his friend's shoulders. Suddenly he noticed the bandage around Merlin's forearm.

"What's that?" Arthur asked, pulling the young wizards arm towards him.

"Nothing." Merlin said hastily, quickly snatching his arm away and hiding it under the blanket.

Arthur paused for a moment until he remembered the 'scratch' Merlin had talked about.

"Did I do that?" He asked quietly.

Merlin's lip twitched slightly and he nodded slowly. Reluctantly he brought his arm out again and unwrapped a few of the bandages. Arthur's eye widened when he saw the deep burnt hole.

"It's nothing, honest. It doesn't even hurt." Merlin lied quickly as Arthur looked at it in horror.

"I'm so sorry." Arthur whispered, unable to drag his eyes away from the wound.

"It was an accident." Merlin said briskly and re-wrapped the blood soaked bandage tightly over his arm.

Arthur looked at Merlin. Merlin looked at Arthur.

"I'm _so_ glad you're alive." The prince muttered and lent his head on his friend's shoulder.

At that moment the door flew open and Gaius charged in, breaking the tender moment. He almost missed the two young men on the bench but caught sight of Arthur, or to be more precise, how his eyes were open and he looked relatively well.

"Sire? Merlin? What happened?"

"Well,Merlindiedbuthe'sfinenowandyoudon'tneedtoworrybecauseI'mgoingtolookafterhimuntillIknowhe'salright." Arthur said at a hundred miles an hour.

"What?" Gaius said with a mountainous eyebrow that threatened to become higher if not given what it wanted.

"Merlin died but he's fine now and you don't need to worry because I'm going to look after him until I know he's alright." Arthur said again.

"You are?" Merlin asked curiously.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Arthur retorted, cuffing him round the head fondly while Merlin protested with a failing hand.

"I was hoping for something more detailed when I asked what happened." Gaius said, falling into a chair and clasping his wrinkly hands together.

"Merlin sacrificed himself for me and the cube killed him." Arthur told him, picking the cube off the floor and inspecting it closely. Gaius motioned for him to go on, "But then I stabbed it and he just…" Arthur shrugged, "came back to life."

"How did you know what to do?" Gaius said, baffled.

"Merlin told me to destroy it." Arthur replied casually.

"I did?"

"You don't remember?"

"Its all a bit hazy…" Merlin murmured, looking into the distance.

"Can you remember anything?" Gaius asked.

The truth was that Merlin did vaguely remember what had happened but he had a feeling it was something to do with magic and he didn't want to speak about it in front of Arthur, however much he wished his friend knew.

"I can't really recall anything. It was just cold and dark." He eventually said but gave Gaius a meaningful glare. Gaius looked non-plussed, "You know it was almost like _magic_ how quickly it all happened." Merlin added, glaring for all he was worth but then snapping out of it as Arthur gave him a funny look.

Gaius appeared to understand.

"Arthur, will you go fetch something for Merlin to drink." He said, turning to the prince, "Any type of liquor will do."

"Got it." Arthur said, standing up and clapping Merlin on the shoulder before sprinting out the door.

"Something you want to say?" Gaius raised an expectant eyebrow.

Merlin looked around for the sheaf of paper he had discovered in the 'Myths Of the Old Times' book and saw it on the table behind him. He picked it up and handed it to Gaius who pushed his spectacles onto his nose before peering down at the parchment and reading it.

_The NightmareChild_

_Many years ago, when magic was not forbidden, The NightmareChild was created. The great sorcerers – Jethro, Koran and Nimueh – for took a secret meeting in the mountains of Berwyn to assemble a weapon. This weapon, The NightmareChild, is believed to have the ability of holding the spirits of lost enchanters, warlocks and sorcerers after they have died. The purpose of this is not yet fully understood but the men of the west think it to bring visions upon whomever the cube chooses. These visions are believed to one-day drive the watcher mad with the horrors they see. _

_Jethro, Koran and Nimueh cast the curse of Many Deaths upon the cube as well as innumerable other enchantments. No soul knows of a way to unbind these curses once they have taken hold of a living being. It is said to be impossible. Once The NightmareChild's victim has been established there is no cure. The NightmareChild's victim will die._

"Yes, what of it?" Gaius asked.

"It says the cube has the ability to hold the spirits of dead enchanters, warlocks and sorcerers." Merlin said, "I think my soul went there after I died and that's how I spoke to Arthur. When Arthur stabbed the cube my soul was released."

Gaius looked thoughtful for a moment but then suddenly seemed to realize something.

"What if Nimueh, Jethro and Koran's souls have also returned to their bodies?" He exclaimed.

"I don't think they have. Nimueh died months ago. Maybe it's too late for them." Merlin said reflectively, wrapping the blanket further around his shoulders.

"Maybe…" Gaius said sceptically, "I'll do some more research. Now we know what it is we can find out more about it."

Merlin nodded as Arthur returned, a silver flask in his hand. He took a seat beside Merlin and handed him the canteen.

"You're not gonna forget this birthday in a hurry, are you?" He said after a moment with a broad grin as Merlin sipped thankfully at the warming alcohol.

"To be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way." Merlin replied, his eyes shining with mischief.

* * *

**Okay, the next will be the last chapter. You'll need to read it if you're planning on reading the sequel...**

**THANK YOU FOR REVEWING! KEEP IT UP! Lets get the review count up to one hundred, go on, you know you can do it! **


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Well, here's the last chapter! **

**I am staggered by the amount of reviews I have! THANK YOU! We're nearly at 100 now....................**

* * *

Arthur kept to his word and stayed with Merlin to make sure he was absolutely fine while the young warlock had a much-needed rest. He just stood by the door watching his friend sleep, relishing the sight of him being alive. Merlin's face was strangely peaceful for someone who had gone through the worst birthday of his life.

* * *

Gaius woke Merlin a while later after he discovered some news from his research that he though his nephew should know about.

Arthur had fallen asleep in a chair, arms folded and chin of chest, snoring quietly so they left him there and went into Gaius's workshop.

"There's not much written about The NightmareChild but from what there is I gathered that Nimueh, Jethro and Koran's souls are trapped in the cube for good …hopefully." Gaius said as Merlin peered bleary eyed at the book before them on the table, "Your soul did go there for a time but because it wasn't for long you were released. Just to be on the safe side, however, I think it would be best if the cube were disposed of properly."

"We can throw it back into the sea at Brinkwell." A voice suddenly said over their shoulder and they whipped around, "You know, return it to where it came from and all that." Arthur suggested breezily.

"How long have you been there?" Gaius demanded, wondering if he's heard the bit about Merlin's soul.

"Just long enough." The prince replied and turned to Merlin, "We'll go to Brinkwell tomorrow." He turned to leave but then seemed to remember something, "Oh, and by the way, happy birthday."

* * *

The next day in the early hours they set off back to Brinkwell and got there just as the sun peeped over the horizon and cast a warm light over the small town. A few seagulls flew overhead in the white sky and foamy waves crashed against the rocks while some children poked around in a small pool, finding a crab and putting it in a bucket, laughing merrily and skipping over the sand to show their mother.

The two young men made their way up to the end of the long and empty pier to the furthest end where the wind was most wild. It whipped Arthur's hair erratically as he pulled the broken cube from his pocket and held it firmly in his hand.

Merlin stood a little way back, watching him.

Arthur looked at the cube with azure eyes once more, thinking how neither he nor Merlin would ever have to suffer at it hand again, before hurling it with all his might into the sea where it disappeared behind the waves.

Merlin went to stand beside him, just brushing his shoulder, as they gazed over the vast ocean spread before them and a faint salty spray filled the crisp clean air.

"It's gone." Arthur said quietly.

Merlin didn't need to reply so he said nothing.

The prince looked down at his friend's injured arm guiltily, a look of self disappointment written on his face. Merlin noticed and put his hands behind his back so he couldn't see it. He hated how Arthur has inwardly beating himself up about it, especially when it had been an accident.

Arthur sighed and looked away again.

"What's up?" Asked Merlin, looking at his friend but Arthur didn't reply, "Are you okay?"

Arthur couldn't tell Merlin what he had felt when he had thought him to be dead, that wasn't something the prince of Camelot would do. But Merlin was there, looking at him, worried for him, even when he wasn't fully recovered himself and should be more concerned for his own welfare.

"I…I was worried about you but you're fine. I'm glad." Arthur turned around and started walking away. He needed to be alone for a while but Merlin's voice froze him just there.

"Thank you, for everything, Arthur."

The young prince felt something strange inside his heart. Something warm, something familiar when listening to Merlin. He didn't say a word – Merlin would only start laughing but it was true. Arthur felt different for Merlin. He _wasn't_ his servant anymore. He would never be able to think of him as anything other than a friend now.

"You destroyed the cube. I would be dead if you hadn't…" Merlin said but trailed off, not wanting or needing to finish the sentence.

Arthur turned around again, his eyes found Merlin's and suddenly, as it was the proper thing to do, Arthur smiled at him.

"Sorry, but your the hero here, Merlin. You saved me, you gave your life for me because I was just a stupid, arrogant prat who never listens." He said with slight bitterness, "I'm sorry nobody will know. Everyone will say that I, the prince, save _your_ life." He started walking again, taking a deep breath of the crisp air as he went.

"I know." Merlin said; speaking so low that Arthur couldn't hear him, "I do love you, my friend."

"Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I'm hungry." Merlin muttered, smiling at the ground, "Let's get something to eat."

He fell into step beside Arthur and for once, they walked together as equals, not master and manservant.

**The End**

* * *

**I would just like to thank the following for all the suport they gave me in the 3 weeks it took to write this who are...**

**Bare-Footed-Muse **(my partner in crime and bafflingly hilarious)

**Loopstagirl **(for the fantastic support and asking me to Beta her first fic)

**Sheileth **(my long time fan)

**Winchester-Jackson-Petrelli **(my **AMAZING** Beta reader)

**Meganpp **(for purely hateing slash as I do)

**SilverFirePegasus **(for commenting so many times on my work)

**WolfWithPantherEyes **(for the far too kind words that I don't deserve)

**Punk Chopsticks **(for being gobsmackingly cool)

**lttlbrat93** (for all the reviews and messages that **ABSOLUTLY **rock)

**Sannepan** (another of my partners in crime)

**Dr Dragon Mistress** (for being awesome)

**MerlinStar** (for awesomeness)

**Mystery-Immortal** (for being heartless...)

**kazuryoshi **(for the lush reviews that I am gobsmacked by)

**CHEERS, GUYS! I couldn't have done it without you!**

**Also a BIG thank you to all my lovely reviewers out there! MERLIN LOVES YOU ALL!**

**Look out for Happy Go Lucky - the sequel!**

**Here's a little preview to get you (hopefully) hooked...**

* * *

_A Flash. _

_Leviathan._

_Gone._

_Upwards._

_Down._

_Crashing._

_Water._

_Darkness._

Brun found himself jerking awake, almost screaming. His tensed shoulders relaxed, as he saw his room in the inn, not the shadowy darkness and ice of the sea. Dreams. He kept having these dreams. They weren't natural, he decided while quickly lighting the candle on the bedside table. A warm orange light filled the room, casting flickering shadows across his face as he stood up and walked over to the window.

He looked out over Brinkwell. Having lived there most of his life, he knew all the streets and alleyways like the back of his hand. The seaside town was awash in moonlight, making everything seem slightly eerie.

He heard the door creak as someone opened it and he turned around to see a man. His attire was rough; several silver earrings littered his face, as did a multitude of scares and tattoos. Brun had never liked him but he was necessary. His reasons for disliking him were many. The first was that the man had an exceptionally ugly tattoo on the very back of his neck – an eye, bright yellow and staring. It unnerved Brun and made him never want to be in its gaze. There were many other reasons but Brun did not have time to go over them as the man suddenly spoke, his voice deep and hard.

"Sir."

He was always so polite around Brun, but the old fisherman knew better. He'd seen him in the taverns and pubs around the town before. The man always started the fights and it was only on rare occasion you found him sober – another of his reasons for disliking him.

"Sheridan." Brun said with the smallest nod of the head to acknowledge his presence.

"We were wondering of our orders, sir." The man went on, leaning on the doorframe and running a huge hand through his greasy hair.

"Yes, orders." Brun snapped to attention.

He moved over to a table by the end of the bed where a chest sat. Removing a key from one of his pockets, Brun pushed it in the slot and twisted it, receiving clicks from the chest. Sheridan looked on as he took out a small, fist-sized cube. He had seen it many times before but he was still amazed by the mere presents of the thing. It was almost as if it whispered to him, telling him things he couldn't understand. He whished more than anything that he knew what it said, but instead of running over to the cube and snatching it away from Brun, he remained by the door, silent as ever. It was in his nature to be silent.

Brun set the cube down on the table, only pausing a moment to take in the silver swirls on it's sides. It was memorizing. On the beach he had been washed up on after his ship was sunk, he had found it. It had been broken – he had thought beyond repair – but then it began to speak to him. It promised him a ship, a crew, a new life. He had nothing, nothing to his name. When it had promised him these things he could do nothing but accept them. He needed to be on a ship, out at sea. It was in his blood. It had told him its plan. It would get him a ship and crew in exchange for his help. When inquired to what the help was, the cube had only specified 'to help us return', whatever that meant. It seemed like a deal to Brun so complied.

He wasn't sure how, but it had rebuilt itself. Once it had been almost smashed it two, split right down the middle, only intact by precious few millimetres, but it had made itself whole again. While witnessing it, Brun was positive it was magical. He had then been afraid. The law clearly stated that anything or anyone magical would be sentenced to death. However, when the cube had told him that no one would find out, he changed his mind. In truth, that part of his mind was ever so hazy…

But no matter – he had more important things to do, one of which was receiving the orders Sheridan required.

"Are you there?" He asked the cube in his hands.

"We are always here." Came the reply.

"Sheridan wants his orders."

"We need the rest of the crew by tomorrow. Make sure he gets every one we need, even if he has to go far to find them."

"Yes."

Brun replaced the cube in the chest and turned to Sheridan who looked at him with those horrible dark eyes of his.

"You must find everyone we need. We set sail tomorrow." Brun told him.

Sheridan nodded once and left with a sweep of his long battered coat. The door closed behind him with a resounding thud.

Brun sighed and made his way back to the window. He felt sorry for whomever Sheridan and his men would pressgang today. The cube had told him to hire Sheridan to kidnap other men for the crew. That's who he was – a hit man. He went out on Brun's orders, taking innocent men for the crew. Brun felt bad about this, ever so bad, but when his conscience had got the better of him and he'd consulted the cube everything began to get hazy again…

What wasn't foggy in his mind was the ship. He wasn't sure of how the cube had got that ship, though he had some small memory of it hurting the previous owner…

Best not to think about that, he decided while gazing at the huge ship, docked up at the harbour, its name painted smartly on the side in white. Emrys.

* * *

**Bye for now!**

**Untill I release the sequel there will probably be some more one shots, so keep your eyes peeled! **

**Thanks again.**

**Remember to keep the magic secret.**

**MBM**


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